State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) on Thursday cut the marginal cost-based lending rate (MCLR) across tenors by 15 basis points (bps). The revised rates, ranging from 7.4% to 8%, will come into effect from April 12. The one-year MCLR has been revised to 8% from 8.15%.
This is the third time the public lender has revised its interest rates this year.
The interest rate reduction will make loans, including home and auto, cheaper for new borrowers. BoB’s overnight and one-month MCLR has been revised to 7.40%, while the three-month MCLR was revised to 7.55%. Six-month MCLR has been revised to 7.85%, the bank said.
BoB’s rate revision comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a 75-bps repo rate cut last month, along with other measures, to mitigate the impact of the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 outbreak. Earlier this week, State Bank of India (SBI) and HDFC Bank also brought down their MCLR.
On March 25, India went into lockdown to limit the spread of the highly contagious novel coronavirus. This was followed by the RBI’s monetary policy committee holding an out-of-cycle review meeting to announce mitigation measures in the wake of the economic slowdown resulting from the nationwide lockdown. Following RBI’s announcements, lenders have also implemented a three-month moratorium on repayment on certain loans. BoB on Wednesday also announced a Covid-19 related personal loan product to help borrowers tide over any temporary liquidity mismatch caused by the pandemic-related disruptions.