HDFC hikes floating loan rates by 25 bps
HDFC hiked interest rates on floating rate home loans by 25 basis points in a move that will make loans costlier for both existing and new borrowers. In addition, a clutch of banks, including Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Overseas Bank and Dena Bank all hiked lending rates. On Monday, Punjab National Bank,
Allahabad Bank and United Bank had raised their base rates and benchmark prime lending rates (BPLR).
OBC has revised its base rate upwards by 50 basis points to 9.50% and BPLR by 50 basis points to 13.75%. Dena Bank, IOB and Indian Bank have hiked their base rates by 50 basis points.
Nupur Mitra, ED, IOB said, “The demand for credit is unlikely to be impacted by higher rates and we will be taking a call on whether to hike the BPLR, which is currently at 13.5%. However, our margins are likely to suffer as a result and could drop to 3% from 3.27%.” With the latest round of loan rate hikes, the base rates of almost all banks are now above 9%. When the base rate was first introduced in July last year, most banks had announced a rate of around 8%. HDFC Home Loan
“This is line with the interest rates in the economy, which have hardened due to an increase in policy rates, inflation and liquidity in the domestic market,” HDFC said in a release. HDFC has increased its retail prime lending rate (RPLR) to which its Adjustable rate home loans (ARHL) is benchmarked, by 25 basis points. The RPLR for loans up to Rs 30 lakh will be 9.75%, for loans between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 75 lakh will be 10% and for loans above that it will be 10.5%.
Meanwhile, Bank of Baroda has realigned deposit rates reducing them for some buckets while increasing them for others.
On Monday, Punjab National Bank had upped both its base rate and benchmark prime lending rate by 50 basis points each to 9.5%and 13% respectively.
It was the first bank to hike loan rates after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked key policy rates by 25 basis points each on January 25, 2011, during its review of the monetary policy.
Said KR Kamath, CMD, PNB, “ We believe that credit offtake will not be impacted by the increase in the loan rates. We have increased deposit rates because we need to sustain both the growth in deposit, currently at 20% and maintain credit growth at 25%.”
Kamath added that the hike was taken in response to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) wishes that credit and deposit growth be aligned.
Allahabad Bank increased its BPLR by 25 basis points to 13.50% and its base rate by 50 basis point to 9.50%. United Bank of India(UBI) too upped its base rate by 50 basis points to 9.45% and BPLR by 50 bps to 13.50%.
With wholesale inflation ruling at 8.5% for the better part of 2010, the central bank increased policy rates six times between March and December 2010.
Banks followed suit increasing both loan and deposit rates with some lenders such as ICICI Bank upping rates twice in the span of a month. The latest hike by banks was on December 31, 2010, when five banks including State Bank of India (SBI) upped loan rates. While SBI raised its base rate by 40 basis points to 8%, ICICI Bank hiked its base rate and benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 50 basis points to 8.25% and 25 basis points to 17%, respectively.
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