SBI Hikes Effective Home Loan Interest Rate EBR Stays Intact

In a yet another revision on floating retail loan rates, the largest lender  in the country-the State Bank of India has hiked its spread (risk premium) on repo rate linked Home Loans by up to 30 bps across products. The external benchmark rate (EBR) however remains intact at 7.05%.

According to an SBI official the move is in lines to balance out increasing credit risk for borrowers and realty firms on the backdrop of coronavirus pandemic.

Furthermore the bank has hiked the spread for its Personal Loan Against Property (P-LAP).

Basically the bank has increased the “risk-premium” on its floating rate Home Loans linked to repo rate. The current effective rates are as follows:

Table: SBI Floating Home Loan rates W.e.f May 1, 2020, Repo Rate= 4.40; EBR= 7.05%

Being the largest lender in the country, a move in rate of interest by SBI is expected to be followed by other commercial banks as well.

Earlier the SBI had revised its EBR and Repo Linked Lending Rate (RLLR) on April 1, 2020 by 75 basis points.

Just a few days ago SBI had cut its MCLR rate by 15 basis points to 7.25% and also reduced its retail deposit rates. In order to extend some relief to elderly the bank has introduced an exclusive deposit scheme called ‘SBI Wecare Deposit’ for senior citizens. Under the scheme seniors will get an additional premium of 30 basis points on term deposits of ‘5 Years and above’ tenor.