Your EMIs Are Set To See A Sharp Jump As Banks To Jack Up Lending Rates

June 9, 2022

Your EMIs are set to see a sharp jump in your monthly payment of loans for home, car as banks are likely to jack up the lending rates following tightening of monetary conditions as the central bank gradually withdraws accommodative monetary policy. The repo-rate now stands at 4.9 percent post revision in rates of 50 basis points upward.

Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI gives short-term funds to banks. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

All banks will pass on the entire repo rate increase to the end customers who had availed of loans linked to external benchmarks. In the case of Marginal Cost of funds-based Lending Rate (MCLR) and fixed rate loans, their asset liability committees are expected to take a call on the quantum of the hike.

“The higher interest rates will get transmitted directly for loans which are linked to external benchmarks such as home loans or SME loans, however MCLRs will be slower to react in terms of quantum of change,” Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist. He added “The same will hold for deposit holders who will receive higher rates depending on how banks adjust their rates based on their funding requirements. As there is surplus liquidity currently in the system which can go for lending, the immediate response may be slow.”

Currently more than 4 percent of all outstanding bank loans are linked to the EBLR, and 50 percent is linked to external benchmarks such as the repo or government securities and the remaining are fixed rate loans.

Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Advisor, said “With EBLR linked loans gaining traction, repo rate increase will curtail inflation through the credit channel as well,”

“As every 1 bps increase in repo has a combined impact of nearly Rs 305 crore on demand from retail & MSME consumers. With terminal repo rate at 5.75 per cent there will be reduction in demand from consumers to the tune of Rs 45,000 crore.”

Private lender hiked its lending rate linked to marginal cost by 35 basis points across all loan tenors on Tuesday, so loans become expensive for existing borrowers. The new marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) will now range between 7.5 percent and 8.05 percent. The one-year MCLR rate stands at 7.85 percent.

The banks had earlier raised MCLR by 25 basis points on 7th May, 2022. This had come close on the heels of the Reserve Bank of India, hiking its benchmark repo rate by 40 bps to 4.40 percent.

Corporation raised interest rates on home loans by 5 basis points on last week, effective 1st June. Last month, the mortgage lender had raised rates by 30 bps.

Private lender had also increased its MCLR by 30 basis points from 1st June. It had also passed on the 40 bps repo rate hike to its customers linked with external benchmark lending rate. Other lenders like Bank of India also hiked their MCLR.

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