New Delhi: Home and auto loan seekers can breathe easy as major bankers are denying a possibility of any increase in home and auto loan interest rates, at least in the near future. The move by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to contain the liquidity by increasing CRR, will drain banks by around Rs. 16,000 crores. However, the banks are not contemplating any hike in interest rates and  will try to tackle things with reducing costs of deposits or reducing administrative costs.

K C Chakrabarty, chairman and managing director, Punjab National Bank said, "I don't see much pressure on housing loan and personal loan front although a few thousand crore from banks are going to be impounded by the Reserve Bank."

RBI had increased the CRR by 50 basis points to 7.5 percent in its mid-term review of credit policy. Despite this step, bankers believe that there is ample liquidity in the system and since the busy credit season has started, the increase in credit off-take will take care of the CRR- hike impact.

Chanda Kochhar joint managing director ICICI Bank also agreed, "The amount of CRR hike could be absorbed... there should not be much change in the interest rates despite some pressure on net interest margins."