Punjab National Bank, the country's second largest public sector bank, has changed interest rates on Foreign Currency Non-Resident deposit schemes with effect from January 1.

PNB, in a statement said the interest rate on US dollar deposits has been decreased from 2.02 percent to 1.98 percent for a tenure ranging between one to two years. For tenures of two to three years, the rate has been increased from 2.01 percent to 2.39 percent.

For deposits with maturity of three to four years, the interest rate has been increased from 2.56 percent to 3.04 percent and on four to five years term deposit the revised rate is 3.54 percent. For fixed deposits of five years the rate has been raised to 3.94 percent as against the earlier 3.36 per cent.

Rate on NRE Term deposits has been revised to 2.73 percent for maturities of one year to less than two years while from two to three years while for deposits with maturities two to three years it has been raised to 3.14 percent from the earlier 2.76 percent.

The interest rate has been raised to 3.79 per cent for the maturity of three to five years.

The bank has slashed the penalty for premature withdrawal (dec24) of deposits by 50 percent to lure more depositors since medium term outlook on interest rates is uncertain.

The bank had been charging 2 per cent penalty for premature withdrawal for the last one year. The rate will be 1 percent from January 1.