No savings bank rate hike for now, says SBI chief

The State Bank of India Chairman, Mr Pratip Chaudhuri, on Tuesday ruled out any immediate increase in its savings bank account rate, saying that the largest Indian bank is confident of the people’s continuing trust in the various facilities being provided to them by SBI.

“No major bank has increased the interest rates on deposits in SB accounts. Those who have done it are not big ones,” he told reporters after the annual conference of SBI’s Chief General Managers (CGMs) here, when asked whether SBI plans to increase the rates in the wake of deregulation of rates by the RBI in the second quarter monetary policy review last week.

Three private sector lenders — YES Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank — have increased the interest rates on SB deposits by up to 200 basis points over the last few days.

Replying to a question, Mr Chaudhuri said the Government is committed to infuse capital in SBI by March 2012 and take a decision on the kind of recapitalisation needed. “It is in the process in the Finance Ministry.”

The SBI chief said it was difficult to predict whether rate hikes would curb inflation. The RBI is targeting to bring it down to 7 per cent by March 2012. If that happens, the central bank could possibly halt any further hike, he added.

Asked about home loan tenures, he said since the average life of a new house is seen as 30 years, SBI is considering increasing tenure of home loans to up to 30 years.

He said there was no deceleration seen in the individual home loan accounts and, in particular, the demand was robust in the premium segment. But there is stress in some sectors of economy such as agriculture, textiles, engineering and SMEs. “Any slowdown in core industries is not good for favourable collection," he said.