Wednesday, September 5, 2012

SBI cuts fixed deposit rates by 0.5 per cent, other banks may follow

New Delhi: State Bank of India, India’s largest bank, on Wednesday announced a reduction in interest rates on fixed deposits by 0.5 per cent for most of the maturity periods, a move likely to be followed by other lenders.
However, for deposits between 241 days and one year, the downward revision is 1 per cent. The new rate would be 6.5 per cent as against 7.5 per cent.

Of the total nine maturity periods for fixed deposits, the 0.5 per cent downward rate revision is for six categories.

The new rates would be effective from September 7, the bank said in a statement.
With the revision, the interest rate on 7-90 days fixed deposit would come down to 6.50 per cent from 7 per cent.

Similarly, term deposits of 91-179 days would be down by 0.5 per cent, at 6.50 per cent, and 180-day fixed deposits would also attract 6.50 per cent interest rate.

Fixed deposits with maturity of 181-240 days would now provide interest rates of 6.50 per cent, down from 7.25 per cent.

For maturity years of one year to less than two years, the new rate will be to 8.5 per cent as against 9 per cent, down by 0.5 per cent.

At the same time, interest rates for fixed deposits with maturity period between 2-3 years and 3-5 years have been slashed by 0.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent.

However, the bank has left interest rate unchanged at 8.5 per cent for term deposit of 5-10 years.