Cuts new home loan rate to 9.9% Watch it! HDFC Bank app woos Apple users
LOWER EMIs Women borrowers to pay 9.85%; banks’ move to reduce lending rates to boost consumer sentiment
MUMBAI: In a move that will ease the pressure for new home loan borrowers, State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, has reduced interest rate on home loans by 0.25 percentage points, bringing it on par with market leader HDFC, and signalling the start of a softer rate cycle.
For women borrowers the rate has been aligned to the base rate, or the minimum lending rate of 9.85% per annum, SBI said.
For other borrowers, the interest rate will be 9.90%, 0.5 percentage points higher than the base rate. The rates will be applicable for all home loans sanctioned on or after April 13, SBI said.
Analysts said lending rate cuts by banks are likely to boost sentiment and could result in an increase in activity for housing finance companies, besides giving a fillip to construction firms as customers will now rush to finalise loan agreements.
“Interest rate for existing Lending rate cuts will boost activities of housing finance cos
It will also provide fillip to construction firms It is also expected to raise banks’ net interest income by 13.8% HDFC Bank will kick off Watch banking. With your Apple Watch, you can...
Place a cheque book request Ask for an account statement Pay bills, re-charge mobile or DTH connections
floating rate home loan borrowers has also been cut to the extent of reduction in the bank’s base rate by 15 basis points. The revised EMI per lakh for a loan tenure of 30 years will be `867 (for women) and `871 (for others), against `885 and `889 respectively earlier,” SBI said.
SBI’s announcement follows an April 11 anouncement by HDFC, where the mortgage leader reduced its home loan rate
by 0.20 percentage points to 9.9%. The cut follows a strong call by RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, who asked banks to reduce rates after the central bank slashed the repo rate – the rate at which banks borrow from RBI – twice in the past three months.
“The strong statement by RBI governor on the reluctance of banks to cut the lending rates has had an impact,” said Jayesh Kumar of Kotak Securities. From price data to financial results of major companies, the next few days are packed with events that the RBI, investors, policy makers and analysts will closely follow. A heads-up MUMBAI: Welcome to gizmo banking’s next cool stuff after mobile apps. India’s HDFC Bank has taken the lead on smartwatch banking, with a push that will cheer Apple Watch enthusiasts.
Wear a Watch, and you can use it to request a cheque book, pay bills, re-charge mobile phones or undertake several other common transactions.
The Aditya Puri-led bank, which saw the maximum number of internet and mobile transactions in 2014-15, plans to target 45-50% of smartphone users for mobile banking.
“We will launch watch banking as and when Apple unveils its Watch in India. In the first phase of our roll-out, we will offer 8-10 operations that are commonly available on the mobile banking app,” Nitin Chugh, head of digital banking at HDFC Bank told HT.
HDFC Bank’s mobile banking app has about 75 features. The Watch will have the 10 most commonly used features.
The bank cited Accenture’s Digital Consumer Tech Survey 2014, which found that 54% of respondents were interested in buying advanced digital products either as an application on the phone, laptop or desktop, or as a dedicated device. Interest is particularly high in India, and especially people aged below 35.
Last year, about 55% of the bank’s transactions were via the internet (including mobile), compared to 44% in the previous year.
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