ICICI Bank hikes lending, deposit rates

MUMBAI - ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector lender, said Saturday it will raise its lending as well as deposit rates by up to 50 basis points effective Dec 6 on the back of tightening monetary policy by the country’s central bank.

The bank will increase interest rates for various tenors of retail fixed deposits by 0.25 percent to 0.50 percent with effect from Dec 6, ICICI Bank said in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Saturday.

The country’s second largest lender after the state-run State Bank of India will also hike its benchmark prime-lending rate and floating reference rate for consumer loans, including home loans by 50 basis points each with effect from Monday.

These rates are used for determining interest rates on loans and advances sanctioned up to June 30, 2010.

“The fixed rate customers will not be impacted by the above increase and their contracted rates will remain unchanged,” the bank said.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has tweaked its short-term borrowing and lending rates for the sixth time in a bid to control inflation, putting pressure on the commercial lenders to hike their rates.