Public sector lender, Canara Bank may lower of the interest rates by the end of this month.

In a statement, A.C. Mahajan, Chairman, Canara Bank, said, "Rate of interest as you are all aware is going southwards. Rates will definitely come down."

He added, "We have an ALCO (asset-liability committee) meeting at the end of the month. We will come out with an appropriate decision."

The bank has also revised the loan targets, lowering these to around 21-22 percent for the current fiscal, when compared to the 29 percent during last fiscal.

Giving a similar indication, Alok Misra, chief managing director, Oriental Bank of Commerce, said, ''We will certainly look into it. We will decide on rate cuts after the ALCO meet within this week."

The benchmark PLR of both Canara Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce as on 1st April 2009, was 12 percent. Currently, Punjab National Bank has the lowest lending rate at 11 percent.

On June 10, in the pre-budget meeting between the union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee and the heads of PSBs, the minister urged the state-run lenders to lower the interest rates in the overall interests of the economy.

Following this, the SBI lowered deposit rates across all its maturity products by 0.25 percent. It is expected that other banks will take similar move in near future.