SBI’s MCLR Remains Unchanged After RBI Halts Rise In Repo Rate

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent after six successive hikes since May, last year. Now, the State Bank of India (SBI), India’s biggest lender by assets, has kept its marginal cost of fund-based lending rate (MCLR) unchanged across tenures. According to the SBI’s website, the overnight MCLR rate is 7.9 per cent, while that of one month tenure is 8.1 per cent. The three-month MCLR is 8.1 per cent and the six-month MCLR stands at 8.4 per cent.

The bank’s one-year, two-year and three-year lending rates were 8.5 per cent, 8.6 per cent and 8.7 per cent, respectively. The tenor-wise MCLR will be effective from April 15.

For those who are confused about MCLR, let us clear that up for you. MCLR is the minimum interest rate that a financial institution charges for most consumer loans such as auto, personal and home. While deciding the lending rates, several factors are considered including deposit rates, repo rates, operating costs and the cost of maintaining the cash reserve ratio.

Only those banks’ borrowers whose loan interest rates are linked with MCLR will be impacted in case of any changes in the repo rate.

RBI had raised policy rates by a cumulative 250 basis points taking the repo rate from 2.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent, through six successive hikes since May last year.

Speaking of loans, recently, RBI has prepared a 12-point draft to curb the arbitrariness of banks. The draft has a central focus on penal charges after many loan recipients lodged complaints in this regard. Suggestions have been sought from banks, non-banking financial companies and housing finance companies on this draft by May 15. The RBI Governor, Shakitkanta Das has mentioned that the guidelines in this regard will be released soon.

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