SBI slashes term deposit rates by 50-100 bps

The revision in rate is for deposits of up to five years and will be effective from Sept 07, 2012

Country’s largest lender State bank of India today reduced interest rate on domestic retail term deposits by 50-100 basis points as a step to reduce cost of funds.

The revision in rate is for deposits up to five years. New rates are effective from September 07, 2012, SBI said in statement.

For deposits upto Rs 15 lakh, the new rate for 241 days to less than one year bracket is 6.5% (earlier it was 7.5%). For one year to less than 2 year time period, the new rate has been slashed to 8.5%  as against 9%.

A senior SBI official said the cuts happened because the deposit mobilisation has outpaced the credit growth. He added that: "The liquidity is comfortable, providing some room for reducing cost of funds. It will also help to protect margins."

For short term deposits: 91-179 days new rate is 6.5% (7% being old rate), 180 days new rate 6.5% (7%), 181-240 days the rate is 6.5% (7.25%).

The lender's retail term deposits rose by 24.97% till June 2012 to Rs 4,36,976 crore. The total deposits stood at Rs 11,02,926 crore, showing 16.09% growth in 12 months ended June 2012.

Its cost of deposits was 6.24% as of June 2012 (5.66% a year ago). The yield on advances was 10.86% (10.43%). The net interest margin was 3.57% in June 2012 as against 3.62% a year ago.