SBI had lowered its savings bank interest rate to 3% for all customers. Earlier, it used to offer 3.25% on balances of up to ₹1 lakh, and 3% on above ₹1 lakh. Last month, it had also waived off maintenance of average monthly balance (AMB) for all savings bank accounts. State Bank of India (SBI) on 7th April lowered its savings deposit rates by 25 basis points (bps) to 2.75%, citing adequate liquidity. The cut will be effective from 15 April.
The bank also announced a reduction in its marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) by 35bps across all tenures. The one-year MCLR comes down to 7.40% from 7.75% with effect from 10 April. This is the eleventh consecutive cut in MCLR in FY20. The reduction will not affect retail loans disbursed after 1 October 2019, when banks had moved to an external benchmark as directed by RBI. Banks can now choose between the repo rate, or the yield on three-month or six-month treasury bills, or any other benchmark rate.
SBI had lowered its interest rates linked to external benchmarks by 75bps and cut its deposit rates between 20 and 100bps. This was after the RBI reduced its repo rate by 75bps to mitigate COVID-19 challenges. SBI’s external benchmark-linked lending rate (EBR) and repo-linked lending rate (RLLR) now stand at 7.05% and 6.65%, respectively.
