Private Banks in India are less eager than other sectors to provide the benefits of the falling interest rates that are supposed to be given to the customers according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The lending rates have been cut back to 12bps in comparison to the Reserve Bank of India’s 135 bps rate cuts in respective to the previous year.
The main reason why the private banks are slow on granting their customers the interest rate cuts is because of their cost of funds. The cost of funds for the private banks in India is higher than the fund costs of other sectors and also their rivalries.
The private banks pay the highest interest to depositors in India. In the arrangement order, private banks come first in the payment of high-interest rates, followed by public sectors and then foreign banks. Depositors were paid a 6.71% interest in November 2019 according to the latest data. Public sectors paid 6.65% interest to depositors while foreign banks paid 5.38%.
The credit growth of Public sectors is very slow in comparison to other sectors. Therefore the need to mobilize deposits through the offering of higher interest rates to depositors is very little. Foreign banks in India are the ones who pay the least to depositors, which means that the lending rates are the cheapest amongst other categories of banks.
Why foreign banks pay the cheapest interest rates to depositors is because of various reasons. One factor is because foreign banks have limited franchises in retail and so in the absence of retail depositors, they don’t have to offer high deposits rates. Hence, their deposit rates are lower than in other baking sectors. As banks began pricing all fresh retail and small business loans to an external benchmark in October, the one-year median MCLR has dropped to 5 bps for all categories of lenders.
The process of setting interest rates by banking sectors is definitely at its core. The Central bank of India has also for several years been trying to make it more transparent. This has led to the change from benchmark prime lending rates (BPLR) to the base rate and to MCLR. It has also led to the change in external benchmark based lending interest rates.
The trend that is observed in the median lending rates of private banks is somewhat different from the trend in weighted average lending rates. This is because of the reduction in the cost of funds for larger and stronger private banks which has been higher. Therefore, the lending rate reduction for these banks have been higher in comparison to some of the smaller private banks.
The median one-year marginal cost of funds based lending rate for private banks fell at 12 basis points (bps) to 9.18% between the month of January and December 2019, comparing to the Reserve Bank of India’s cumulative 135 bps cut in its key policy rate to 5.15%.
Most bank loans are typically priced over the one-year MCLR which makes it the most tracked rate.
The main reason why the private banks are slow on granting their customers the interest rate cuts is because of their cost of funds. The cost of funds for the private banks in India is higher than the fund costs of other sectors and also their rivalries.
The private banks pay the highest interest to depositors in India. In the arrangement order, private banks come first in the payment of high-interest rates, followed by public sectors and then foreign banks. Depositors were paid a 6.71% interest in November 2019 according to the latest data. Public sectors paid 6.65% interest to depositors while foreign banks paid 5.38%.
The credit growth of Public sectors is very slow in comparison to other sectors. Therefore the need to mobilize deposits through the offering of higher interest rates to depositors is very little. Foreign banks in India are the ones who pay the least to depositors, which means that the lending rates are the cheapest amongst other categories of banks.
Why foreign banks pay the cheapest interest rates to depositors is because of various reasons. One factor is because foreign banks have limited franchises in retail and so in the absence of retail depositors, they don’t have to offer high deposits rates. Hence, their deposit rates are lower than in other baking sectors. As banks began pricing all fresh retail and small business loans to an external benchmark in October, the one-year median MCLR has dropped to 5 bps for all categories of lenders.
The process of setting interest rates by banking sectors is definitely at its core. The Central bank of India has also for several years been trying to make it more transparent. This has led to the change from benchmark prime lending rates (BPLR) to the base rate and to MCLR. It has also led to the change in external benchmark based lending interest rates.
The trend that is observed in the median lending rates of private banks is somewhat different from the trend in weighted average lending rates. This is because of the reduction in the cost of funds for larger and stronger private banks which has been higher. Therefore, the lending rate reduction for these banks have been higher in comparison to some of the smaller private banks.
The median one-year marginal cost of funds based lending rate for private banks fell at 12 basis points (bps) to 9.18% between the month of January and December 2019, comparing to the Reserve Bank of India’s cumulative 135 bps cut in its key policy rate to 5.15%.
Most bank loans are typically priced over the one-year MCLR which makes it the most tracked rate.
Mohit Kamboj is the author of this article. Find more information about Mohit Kamboj.