Coronavirus relief: SBI takes cue from RBI; cuts lending rates by 75 bps

India's largest lender, State Bank of India, on Friday reduced its lending and deposit rates after the Reserve Bank of India significantly reduced the repo rate earlier in the day to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

SIB reduced its lending rates by 75 basis points, passing on the entire repo rate cut of by the RBI.

Consequently, the lender has also reduced interest rates on retail and bulk deposits by between 20 to 100 basis points across various tenors.
 

"Rate cut is for borrowers availing loans based on external benchmark-linked lending rate and repo-linked lending rate," the bank said in a statement. The new rates, to be effective from April 1.

The EBR has been reduced to 7.05 per cent per annum from 7.80 per annum, while RLLR to 6.65 per cent per annum from 7.40 per annum.

The bank said equated-monthly instalments (EMIs) on eligible home loan accounts (linked to EBR or RLLR) will get cheaper by around Rs 52 per Rs 1 lakh on a 30-year loan.

In the seventh bi-monthly monetary policy announced on Friday, the RBI reduced the repo rate by 75 bps, the highest cut in 15 years, to 4.40 per cent from 5.15 per cent.