The Reserve Bank of India has extended the restructuring norms to cover home loans extended by banks. The move follows a fall in home loan portfolios of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs).

Presently restructuring facility is available to industrial units, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) etc and restructuring of home loans is being done to prevent the reduction of such loans. The move is likely to leave a positive impact on the banks' bottomline- net income...

Although stage has been set by the RBI for a downward revision in interest rates, banks are waiting for Finance Minister P Chidambaram's gestures before declaring a revision in their lending and deposit rates.

The finance minister is scheduled to meet the chiefs of state-owned banks on November 4th where by he will carry "forward" the view of interest rate cut.

On the comment of the policy measures taken by RBI, he said, "I am happy with...

Readers of Rupeetimes.com would like to be informed that the article published under the headline "Existing Customers of ICICI will also face the rate hike" on October 30th, 2008 is not based on correct information due to some misleading market analysis.

The article mentions that home loan rates have been revised upwards for the existing customers of ICICI but this is factually incorrect. The home loan rates have been revised only for the new borrowers...

People planning to finance their home through a bank loan may have to give a second thought as banks have started raising the margin money for home loans.

Margin money is the percentage of purchase price that the buyer has to pay at the time of purchase. The bank finances the amount remaining after this payment. Banks are now raising this percentage to as high as 40%.

The realty market is already on a downturn and...

The delinquency rate among the loan portfolios of the banks are on rise due to the economic slowdown. Default among the healthy consumers is also becoming common in the current phase.

Recently Vijaya Bank has reported about its delinquency in home loans.

Chairman and Managing Director of Vijaya Bank, Albert Tauro said: "The delinquency has mainly been in home loans. These are not bad loans only that the incremental EMIs due to the current economic...

The home loan rates of ICICI Bank were revised upwards for the new customers of the bank but sources said that rates had been increased for the old customers as well.

On October 10th ICICI had raised the interest rates from 12% to 13% at the time of very tight money market conditions. However these new rates were only applicable to new customers. The bank is viewing its cost of funds before taking any...

ICICI Bank has been asked to pay Rs 2 lakh by the District Consumer Forum as a compensation for its deficiency in services.

The complainant, Surinder Singh had availed a home loan of Rs 1 crore from ICICI Bank, which was to be repaid in 140 equated monthly instalments (EMIs) of Rs 1,26,676 each, through electronic clearing services (ECS). The complainant had ensured that his account always had a minimum balance more than one...

Can Fin Homes (CFHL) Ltd has been assigned an ‘AA+' rating by CARE. The rating is assigned on the basis of its long term instruments that are considered to offer high safety for timely servicing of debt commitments. Such instruments also carry very low credit risk.

Instruments with tenure of more than one year were taken into consideration while assigning the rating. The outstanding term loans of Rs 9,472.2 million and due term loan of Rs...

People planning to finance their new house through ICICI Bank may give it a second thought because the bank has raised its new home loan rates.

ICICI Bank's home-loan subsidiary, ICICI Home Finance Co (I-HFC) has marked a hike of 100 basis points in its new home loans. Home loan at a floating rate has been raised to 13% from 12% while the interest rate for fixed home loan is at 16.5%.

However these rate...

Home loan rates over the industry are likely to decline following the repo cut on October 20th. Almost all commercial banks are planning to cut interest rates on home loan by 0.50%.

Country's largest home loan lender, State Bank of India (SBI) is on course to slash its housing loan interest rates by about 50 basis points before Diwali. On the other hand Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Union Bank of India (UBI) have...

The repo cut by RBI may give a reason to cheer for people who are planning to buy their dream home in this festive season.

State-run, Union Bank of India (UBI) has reduced its home loan rates by 50 basis points immediately after the Central Bank cut its short term lending rate (repo) by 100 basis points.

The interest rates have been slashed down to 11% for home loans upto Rs 30 lakh. However rates...

The Reserve Bank of India employees went on a one day strike on October 21st. As many as 25,000 employees of RBI went on a "mass casual leave" in order to press on pension increases.

The strike at RBI's 20 offices in the country has caused some disruption to normal operations, including the payment and settlement system. RBI employees had also conducted two days' liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) auctions on Monday only in the wake...

India's largest lender, State Bank of India is aiming to upgrade its current Gulf operations.

The bank has acquired an upgraded license for its operations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). SBI has got Category 1 license that will allow it to offer corporate credit, accept deposits, arrange credit for investments, and also offer advice on financial products.

Praveen Gupta, SBI's regional head and chief executive for the Middle East...

Real estate developers may soften the home loan rates for its consumers despite the fact that banks may be hesitant to reduce the lending rates even after the CRR cut.

Banks are planning to wait for sometime before reducing their lending rates immediately after the RBI's announcement of 150 basis points cut in the cash reserve ratio. However the real estate developers are not following that trend and planning to ease the home loan rates.

The...

India's largest lender, State Bank of India has started a two day loan fair in Ranchi, Jharkhand that will commence from October 13th to October 14th. The loan mela has exciting packages for home loans and car loans provided by SBI.

During these two days, the bank is offering 50% rebate on processing charges and 5% off on the loan margin amount for both home loans and car loans.

The first day of the...

Your dream house may cost you more now.

If you are planning to opt for home loan of more than Rs 75 lakh then you must also get ready to pay higher interest rates. Banks are raising home loan rates for borrowers who are demanding huge amounts. They are resorting to 25 to 50 basis points hike in interest rates for loan amounts exceeding Rs 75 lakh.

Earlier the banks had two slabs for home loans-...

A new non-banking financial company will soon start its operations and offer Citibank's consumer finance products.

Citibank is going to enter into a 50:50 joint venture with Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Retail with the aim to distribute the former's consumer finance products such as loans and credit cards.

The proposed joint venture is expected to work as a non-banking financial company (NBFC) with a combined investment of Rs 500 crore.

Market sources told that both parties would...

Interest Rates for Home Loans are undoubtedly the most important parameter for a consumer while considering his loan agreement. The country's housing loan segment has seen various fluctuations in interest rates over the past two years. Home loan seekers have faced dramatic interest rate changes caused by variations in economic parameters. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has played a vital role in influencing home loan rates through its monetary policy tools such as...