The Hindu Business Line : ICICI Bank's new home loans may be costlier

E-TICKETING EXTENDED: The Union Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad (right); the Railway Board Chairman, Mr. J.P.Batra; and the MD & CEO ICICI Bank, Mr K.V. Kamath, at a press conference in the Capital on Thursday. - Kamal Narang

ICICI Bank, the country's second largest commercial bank, is likely to raise interest rates on home loans for new customers. It may also look at increasing deposit rates in the wake of some liquidity tightening by the Reserve Bank of India in the form of cash reserve ratio (CRR) hike.

There is however no plan to raise interest rates on home and automobile loans already availed by existing customers, ICICI Bank's Executive Director, Mr V. Vaidyanathan, told Business Line on the sidelines of an MoU signing function with the Indian Railways.

He also said that there was no immediate plan to raise the bank's benchmark advance rate, which was recently raised by one percentage point to 14.75 per cent with effect from February 9.

Mr Vaidyanathan later said he expected the incremental credit disbursals of the bank to grow by at least 20 per cent. He also said that the fee-based incomes of the bank would continue to be strong.

ICICI bank's Chief Executive Officer, Mr K.V. Kamath, however maintained that the bank would wait for market signals before deciding on any lending rate hikes. "We have to look at issues and understand the implications of the latest CRR hike. We have not taken any decision on revising any rates," Mr Kamath said.

MoU with Railways

Indian Railways and ICICI Bank signed a memorandum of understanding for extending the sale of e-tickets through merchant establishments located in 125 cities across the country.

The project would start on a pilot basis from Delhi and Mumbai but no announcements were made regarding the date on which it would take off the ground.

The idea is to make e-tickets available through e-points of sale (e-POS) machines located at merchant establishments and shopping malls in over 125 cities all over the country to enable dispensation of reserved tickets.

The tickets can be purchased through credit cards or cash on payment of service charges as per Visa/Master card rules.

The MoU was signed by Ms Rajni Hasija, Group General Manager of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, and Mr Sachin Khandelwal, General Manager, ICICI Bank, in the presence of the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad and his two deputies, Mr Naranbhai J Rathaw and Mr R Velu.

More Stories on : Housing Finance | Interest Rates | Railways | ICICI Bank Ltd

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