SBI makes home loans cheaper, cuts rate by up to 25 bps; but analysts don’t see a rush by buyers anytime soon

Even as home buyers put off purchases in anticipation property prices could correct, State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday made home loans cheaper for new customers. Loans of up to Rs 30 lakh will cost women 8.35% and others 8.4%; that’s 25 basis points (bps) less than rates available a few months ago. Women borrowing more than Rs 30 lakh will need to pay an interest rate of 8.5% while others will cough up 8.55%.Rival ICICI Bank charges salaried persons an interest rate of 8.7% for loans up to Rs 75 lakh while mortgage specialist HDFC charges...

Read more »

Shareholders to elect 4 independent directors of SBI on Jun 15

The country's largest lender SBI has invited applications for appointment of four independent directors to its central board who will be elected by the public shareholders on June 15.The election has been necessitated after the resignation of Sunil Mehta and the expiry of the three-year-term of the three other directors -- Deepak Amin, Sanjiv Malhotra and MD Mallya, the bank said in a notice.The term of appointment for the four new directors will be for three years till 2020, and the election will be held during the forthcoming general meeting...

Read more »

Stake dilution in PSBs after their health improves: Arun Jaitley

The government will dilute its stake in state-run banks to 52 per cent once the health of the lenders improve and the money will be used to inject capital in them, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.He hoped for a resolution to the burgeoning bad loan problem following the government empowering the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to order lenders initiate insolvency proceedings against defaulters and create committees to advise banks on recovering non-performing loans."We already have a programme under which we have been supporting recapitalisation...

Read more »

Bad debt situation not that grim, recovery hopes intact: SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya

State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, today said most of the nation's bad loans belong to industries that are still in business and banks will probably recover the write-downs when growth turns up and they perform again.Speaking at a seminar on 'Asian Banking in Challenging Times' here, SBI Chairman and Managing Director Arundhati Bhattacharya said the loans which have turned bad are because they are not producing enough money to cover their interest liability.And the reasons for that have been huge time overruns, leading to cost...

Read more »