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State-owned Corporation Bank reduced benchmark lending rate by 0.25% to 10.25%, making loans including home and corporate cheaper for borrowers. The bank has revised the base rate or the minimum lending rate from 10.50%, to 10.25% with immediate effect, Corporation Bank said in a filing on the BSE. A host of lenders, including State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and IDBI Bank have cut lending rates following easing of monetary policy by the Reserve Bank.

Study: Microcredit recipients fewer

The number of world’s poorest families who received access to microcredit and other financial services declined for the first time in 2011 over the previous year and India accounted for almost all of the reduction, a report has said. According to the state of the latest microcredit summit campaign report, in 2011, microfinance providers reached fewer people living in extreme poverty than they did in 2010. This marks the first time since the campaign started recording Institutional Action Plans in 1998 that both the total number of clients and the number of poorest families reached declined from one year to the next, the report said. India accounts for almost all of the reduction in clients worldwide, the report said. In 2011, there were 14 million fewer poorest clients in India than in 2010.

Raghuram Rajan wins CFS award