The festival season has started and with it the target by lenders to attract more and more customers towards their offerings. The rising interest rate regime had put a customers in a dilemma and many were opting to delay their plans.

In order to gain customer confidence again and positively trigger their buying behavior, public sector banks have started offering home and auto loans at discounted rates.

Major players in the lending domain like State Bank of India, Canara Bank, Dena Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank, Corporation Bank, Central Bank of India, UCO Bank have come with a varied set of offers to allure the customer segment.

S Raman, CMD of Canara Bank, said, "We are rolling out our festival offer on October 10 which will remain open till January 15, 2012. We will be reducing interest rates across all slabs and tenures for home loans by 50 basis points (0.5 per cent) and 100 basis points (1 per cent) for vehicle loans, in addition to waiving off the entire processing charges on home and auto loans."

"We will also be waiving off completely the additional interest rate of 0.25 per cent that we normally charge to a customer borrowing for a second house," he added.

Dena Bank has recently declared a 50 bps dip in home, auto loans. "Festival season is the time when people buy flats and cars despite liquidity constraints. Several builders and car manufacturers are offering discounts too," said a senior official of the bank.