Public sector lender State Bank of Travancore has announced a revision in its base rate as well as benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR). The hike has been made in the range of 25-50 bps by the lender.

The base rate of the bank has received a 25bps hike taking it to 10.50% from 10.25% earlier.

The BPLR, on the otherhand, stands at 15.50% after the revision as against 15.00% earlier.

With effect to revision in these rates,...

Regulator Reserve Bank of India has still not taken a final decision in the case of waiving off prepayment penalty in case of floating rate home loans.

The apex bank awaits comments in this regard from the Indian Banks' Association.

"Till now, it is only a recommendation being considered by the RBI. Based on the formal response of the IBA, our regulatory department would then take a considered view and then communicate the guideline or the...

The recent times are witnessing dual rate home loans again finding a space in the loan kitty of some big lenders of the country. Lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC as well as LIC housing finance have already introduced these fixed cum floating rate schemes in the home loan segment for customers.

However with regulator Reserve Bank of India directing for higher provisioning requirements to be set by banks in case of teaser loans,...

The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India is now focusing its entry into the mortgage market of the United Kingdom.

In a bid to expand its retail business even further, the bank has planned to take this step. The lender would begin with the category of home loans called buy-to-let mortgages.

These are loans for landlords which will be offered in the range of 50,000 pounds to 1.5 million pounds.

The loan to...

The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India has entered the team of members for credit information agency, Experian.

Major lenders in India have so far been subscribing to CIBIL for getting their required credit details including SBI. But with opening up of new service providers like Experian, lenders are getting more options to select on.

"The State Bank is the largest lender and the addition of its credit data will further increase the...

Public sector lender Dena Bank has announced a reduction in interest rates of home loans as well as car loans by as much as 25 bps.

Referring these concessional rates as part of festival bonanza, the bank has also added another offer to it. Processing fees of these loans has been dipped by 50 percentage points.

The offer is however valid only on new home and car loan schemes.

The offer will come into effect...

The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India has announced an extension in its concessional interest rates which it was offering on home loans till December this year.

The scheme offers home loan borrowers a discounted interest by 25 bps over the prevailing interest rates.

"A concession of 0.25 per cent in the card interest rate over the tenor of the home loan is available under the ongoing special home loan campaign up...

Regulator Reserve Bank of India has denied the acceptance of the much talked over takeover of Royal Bank of India India's retail and commercial operations by HongKong and Singapore Banking Corporation (HSBC).

The deal which was in the process of nurture since the last one year nearly. RBI has its own concerns behind holding back its approval of the takeover.

The prior concern of the apex bank is that once RBS sells of its retail and...

National Housing Bank, the umbrella sheltering as many as 54 housing finance companies (HFCs) is likely to remove prepayment penalty being charged to home loan borrowers on floating rate home loans. This news comes as a matter of rejoice for home loan borrowers.

"We will soon issue a circular for doing away with pre-payment charges levied by housing finance companies," NHB Chairman and Managing Director R V Verma said.

NHB stands as regulator to major...

Resident Indianshave now been allowed by Reserve Bank of India to repay home loans on behalf of their NRI relatives.

Close kins of residents who are either non resident Indians (NRI) or people of Indian origin (PIOs) can now get home loan repaid through Indian relatives.

"..It has been decided that where an authorised dealer (bank) in India has granted loan to a non-resident Indian..., such loans may also be repaid by resident close relative of...

Public sector lender Bank of Maharashtra is likely to opt for a hike in its lending rates following the recent policy rate hike by Reserve Bank of India.

Speaking on this issue, Mr A S Bhattacharya, CMD of the bank said, "When last time, the RBI hiked its policy rate on July 16, we did not go in for a hike.

"But, this time, since it is an increase of 25 basis points, we may hike...

Banking and monetary regulator, Reserve Bank of India is expected to give yet another pitch to policy rates today in the review meeting of monetary policy today. This being the 12th rise in policy rates that the regulator has announced since March 2010, efforts to control towering inflation thus continue to be in action.

With inflation figures for August touching the highest in 13 months to 9.78% as compared to RBI's target of 5.0%, another shoot...

Reserve Bank of India has finally received the recommendations of the Malegam Committee regarding new licenses to be offered to the urban cooperative banks (UCBs).

The recommendations offered by the committee come as a light of hope for cooperative credit societies of Gujarat which may now get a chance to upgrade themselves to cooperative bank stature. It is expected by analysts that as many as 40-50 of these societies from Gujarat may get cooperative bank licenses.

According...

Public sector lender Indian Bank has been awarded with the ''CNBC-TV18 Special Jury Award'' recently.

The bank got the award at the CNBC-TV 18 Best Bank and Financial Institution awards for FY2011 in the category of mid sized banks.

The award was given to CMD of the bank, Mr T M Bhasin by Union Minister of Corporate Affairs, Mr Veerappa Moily.

The bank got selected on the basis of complex evaluation in terms of profitability, growth and...

The teaser home loan scheme seems to be seeing a revival with more and more financial institutions joining the league in introducing such schemes. Recently leading housing finance provider, LIC Housing Finance Ltd launched a fixed cum floating interest rate home loan.

So far similar schemes have been introduced by private sector lender, ICICI Bank and HDFC Ltd.

LICHF's new product has been named, 'New Advantage 5' will offer home loans with a fixed...

The finance ministry's advice to public sector lenders to increase the tenor of home loans in order to reduce the burden of rising interest rates on the borrowers is proving to be difficult to manage for the banks.

The biggest issue that banks are facing is the fact that in most of the cases, the extension in loan tenor reached out to be exceeding his job life.

In this regard, CMD of Canara Bank said that...

Lenders in Karnataka have been able to achieve 28% of the total credit target set under the priority sector for this financial year.

Speaking at a meeting held for the state level bankers committee (SLBC), chairman for SLBC Karnataka, Mr Basant Seth said that the rate at which financial inclusion is being carried out in the state needs to be increased in order to achieve the target of total financial inclusion completely.

The total deposits of the...

Public sector lender Syndicate Bank has inked deal with insurance provider Tata AIG life insurance to offer group insurance cover to home loan customer segment of the bank.

As part of the deal, home loan borrowers will be getting a cover for their loan liability. They will have the choice to opt between paying premium separately or clubbing it with the EMI of the loan.

"With over 1.6 lakh home loan borrowers, we have a...

The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India has indicated that it has no intention of setting foot again into the segment of teaser loans. Following introduction of the loan kind by leading peers like HDFC and ICICI Bank, SBI's stand on the case was a much sought out question.

"We have no plans as of now to launch any special home loans," State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri confirmed.

The...

National Housing Bank also seems to be in agreement with the stance taken by Reserve Bank of India that prepayment penalty on floating rate home loans be removed.

NHB is planning to soon come up with directives which will instruct housing finance companies (HFCs) to waive off prepayment penalties from such loan types.

"We will soon bring guidelines to remove prepayment penalties on all accounts," R Verma, chairman and managing director, NHB said.

"There has...