State Bank of India (SBI) has lowered its lending and deposit rates effective 15 December, following the Reserve Bank of India’s repo rate cut by 25 basis points.

The country’s largest bank has slashed its external benchmark linked rate (EBLR) by 25 basis points, making retail and home loans cheaper for existing and new borrowers. The EBLR, which applies to most floating-rate retail loans such as home loans, has now come down to 7.90% from 8.15% earlier.

The base rate for legacy borrowers has also dropped to 9.90% from 10%.

The state-owned bank has reduced its marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) by 5 basis points for all tenures. The one-year MCLR, a key benchmark for many loans, will now stand at 8.70% from 8.75%. Other tenures, including overnight, one-month and three-year MCLR, have also been lowered.

On the deposit rate front, the reduction has been by 5 basis points on select tenures. For fixed deposits with maturity between 2 years to less than 3 years, the bank has cut the interest rate to 6.40% from 6.45% earlier.

The interest rate of the 444-day ‘Amrit Vrishti’ fixed deposit scheme has been revised to 6.45% from the earlier 6.60%.

The bank has, however, retained interest rates on other maturity buckets, indicating pressure of competition among banks on deposit mobilisation.