ICICI Bank said today it had raised lending and deposit rates for new retail customers by 50 basis points to help maintain its net interest margins. The deposit rates have also been increased in the range of 50 bps-75 bps across various tenures.
There is no change in lending rates for corporates and the new rates would be applicable only to new customers, Executive Director V. Vaidyanathan said.
"We had already prepared the market for a raise," he told Reuters. "We worked on it in the past few days and have decided to raise the PLR by 50 basis points."
He expected the increase to help maintain the bank's net interest margin, which was 2.6 per cent for the December quarter.
Mr Vaidyanathan said a series of rate increases and tightening measures by the central bank were having an impact on loans demand. The annual loan growth could slow to about 20 per cent from the current rates around 30 per cent.
The interest rate on new variable-rate home loans would be 11 per cent, up from 10.5 per cent, and fixed-rate home loans would rise to 13 per cent from 12.5 per cent.
Leading bank SBIon Monday raised its benchmark lending rate by 75 basis points to 12.25 per cent.
(Source-Tribune India,24/02/07)
