Yes Bank ups rates by up to 2%, others to decide later

Within hours of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deregulating savings rate, private lender Yes Bank today hiked its saving rate by a hefty 2% even as some leading bankers said they were not in a hurry to take a call as the liquidity position is comfortable.

"We are not in a hurry. We will see how it [the rate hike] pans out. We don't see any pressure now [on liquidity]. Banks are comfortable with the liquidity now. Banks will not be desperate to raise rates," SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said after RBI hiked policy rates by 25 basis points.

Yes Bank, however, was quick to react and raised savings rate by 200 basis points to 6%. Further, the bank also increased its base rate or minimum lending rate by 25 basis points to 10.50% with immediate effect.

As for SBI, Chaudhuri said, "right now there is so much liquidity that we are thinking of downsizing on the liquidity."

The largest private sector lender ICICI Bank said it would watch the situation for sometime before taking a decision on rate revision.

"The rates would not go up immediately. Everybody is going to watch before taking any decision on rate hikes," ICICI Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar said.

HDFC Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Aditya Puri said, "Lending rates will not go up till the deposit rates do so. At the moment it is in a comfortable situation."

Oriental Bank of Commerce Executive Director SC Sinha, however, said, "Banks are likely to increase both lending and deposit rates following the RBI action. There could be a minimum 25 basis point rise in lending rate."