Home, car loans may get costlier, but not immediately

Your home loan or car loan EMIs (equated monthly instalments) may go up because of the 25 bps increase in repo and reverse repo rates announced by Reserve Bank of India.

Interest rates on various retail loans are likely to be revised upwards and the exact amount of hike and timing would depend on individual banks. The predominant view among bankers is that the hike in repo and reverse repo rates should be passed on to the borrower.

In the recent past, banks have only been focusing on hiking deposits rates. Now, it is time the focus moves to the assets side of a bank's balance sheet which might result in rate hike, say experts.

Wait-and-watch

However, for the next two weeks, banks may adopt a wait-and-watch approach before raising their prime lending rate or base rate.

While observing that rates may inch up, Ms Renu Challu, Managing Director, State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), told Business Line that her bank might not immediately increase the lending rates.

“There is definitely an indication of an upward bias in the lending rates. But for now, it is certain that rates are not going to come down,'' she said.

Mr Ramnath Pradeep, Chairman and Managing Director of Corporation Bank, said neither deposits nor loan interest rates will be increased till March 31.

Asked if the bank was planning to launch a new loan or deposit product, he said the bank has launched many such products in the past few months.

According to a senior official of Union Bank, the current ‘mismatch' between the hike in the repo/reverse repo rate and base rate would drive increase in lending rates.

“In the recent past, say from March last, the policy rates have gone up by 250 basis points while the base rates of bank have gone up by about 170 bps roughly. This will call for a hike in lending rates,'' he explained.

When asked if home loan and car loan rates would now go up, a South-based public sector bank official said, “Our bank will hold the rates. If we raise the rates any further, it would affect our growth rates apart from pushing some of these assets into non-performing category. We will maintain status quo.”

Mr P. Jayaram Bhat, Managing Director, Karnataka Bank Ltd, sees no immediate reasons to increase advance rates as of now. The decision to increase depends on the liquidity position of individual banks, he added.