Oriental Bank hikes PLR by 75bps to 12.50%

Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) today announced increase in its benchmark prime lending rate (PLR) by 75 basis points (bps) to 12.50% with effect from February 23.

The rate has been raised in view of increase in cost of deposits, recent CRR hike coupled with increased provisioning requirement on standard advances under certain segments like real estate, NBFC, credit cards, etc, the bank said in a statement.

The city-based bank will raise its BPLR from 11.75% to 12.50%. The upward revision is, however, not applicable to housing loans up to Rs 20 lakh and education loan up to Rs 4 lakh.

In the past few days other PSU banks like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Union Bank among others have also increased their PLR ranging from 50-75 basis points.

Banks are under pressure to increase their lending rates as cost of funds have gone up following the hike in repo rate and Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by the Reserve Bank.