ICICI Bank says to cut base lending rate by 25 bps

MUMBAI (Reuters) - ICICI Bank Ltd , India's biggest private sector lender by assets, will cut its base lending rate by 25 basis points to 9.75 percent, effective Friday, it said on Tuesday.

ICICI Bank's move followed announcements by market leader State Bank of India and second-biggest private sector lender HDFC Bank Ltd to lower base lending rates by 15 percent each.

The Reserve Bank of India kept its key policy rate on hold on Tuesday and Governor Raghuram Rajan voiced impatience that few banks had lowered their lending rates despite two policy rate cuts earlier this year.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee)