Loans to get cheaper as SBI cuts lending rates

Ahead of the festive season, India's largest public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) has reduced the Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) by 10 bps.

The reduction of 10 bps will lead to cheaper retail loans.

"In view of the festival season and extending benefit to customers across all segments, SBI has reduced its MCLR by 10 bps across all tenors," SBI said.

This has been the 6th time in the Financial Year 19-20 that SBI has reduced retail loan interest rates.

After the rate cut, the new MCLR is 8.05%

Previously, to encourage spending during the festival season, SBI on Monday launched 'Debit Card EMI facility' for its existing customers, whereby they can opt for an EMI tenure of minimum six months to 18 months.

SBI had 30.37 crore cards at the end of June, according to the figures from Reserve Bank of India, which is about 83 lakh cards lower than in December 2018. SBI said the card would enable customers to buy the products at 40,000 plus merchants and stores in over 1,500 cities having Pine Labs branded POS (point of sale) machines totalling more than 4.5 lakh.

Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, SBI, said, “Debit card EMI will enable customers to buy consumer durable products on EMI at various merchant stores pan India using their debit cards without having to pay the entire amount immediately. We believe the introduction of this new product is a step forward by the bank to offer the delight of hassle-free purchases and paperless loans.”

(More details awaited...)