Among private-sector banks, only IndusInd Bank had announced a reduction in its PLR to 14.5 per cent from 15 per cent after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a reduction in the bank rate and cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points (bps) each last week. However, the board meeting to finalise the same has been postponed until the end of this month. Sources in UTI Bank, Global Trust Bank, ICICI Bank and Centurion Bank will wait till after the Union Budge before slashing their PLRs. Most private- sector banks were of the view that they had competitive PLRs and were in no hurry to bring it down further.

Global Trust Bank senior vice-president Diptesh Shah said, "We are in the midst of a merger exercise. So, we are not going to touch our PLR. A critical view can be taken only after the budget."

UTI Bank senior vice-president treasury Parthasarthy Mukherjee said, "At this moment we have no plans to further cut our PLR as it is competitive. In the current scenario, we will be observing the market conditions. So there are no specific plans."

The merger between UTI Bank and Global Trust Bank is seen being effected from the end of this month by which time the Budget would have been tabled in the Parliament.IndusInd Bank's managing director and CEO, KL Maheshwari, said, "Our PLR will be coming down by 50 bps... we had plans to reduce our PLR in July itself." Mr Maheshwari further added that the bank board's decision to finalise the slash in PLR has been postponed to February 28.

Endorsing like views, ICICI Bank's senior vice-president Ravi Kumar said, "At this stage, we are not taking any decision. The Asset Liability Manangement Committee (ALCO) met last Saturday. We will review the position after the Budget. We are watching the market and the status-quo continues."Similarly, Centurion Bank too feels it does not the need to slash its PLR.

Centurion Bank executive director Moses Harding said, "Our PLR is the lowest at 13.5 per cent as compared to other private-sector banks. We have not yet decided to slash them down further."

The RBI on Friday had cut the bank rate to 7.5 per cent effective immediately, and also announced a two-stage CRR reduction to eight per cent.