The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India has decided for a dip in interest rates of education loans. The slash in rates should take place by as much as 100 basis points, said the bank without furnishing further details.
Presently the range of interest rates in this segment ranges from 12.25% to 14.50% for the bank.
Education loan forms less than 7% of the total retail loan book of SBI.
Women students would get a 0.5% waiver on interest rates from the bank.
The largest lender in the country State Bank of India has announced to extend the concessional scheme where the lender was offering a concession of 25 basis points over the card rates till 31st December this year, earlier the scheme was available till October 31st.
In a statement the bank said "A concession of 0.25 per cent in the card interest rate over the tenor of the home loan is available under the ongoing special home loan campaign up to December 31."
A few lenders have recently launches the dual rate home loan scheme which has affected the home loan business of the bank and in order to lure customer the bank has extended the tenure of the scheme.
As ICICI Bank and HDFC Ltd, both leading lenders in the country have launched teaser home loan schemes where the interest rate remains fixed for initial few years and then turns to floating. The trend was started by the largest lender in the country State Bank of India which has to withdraw this scheme under immense pressure from the Reserve Bank of India has ruled out any possibility of re-launching the teaser loan scheme.
The Chairman of State Bank of India, Mr. Pratip Chaudhuri said "We have no plans as of now to launch any special home loans.
“We had tried to argue (with the RBI), to reason, but the regulator has a position and already we have provided 2 per cent on our teaser loan portfolio that is Rs. 500 crore. I think it was a stiff enough penalty and we would not like to live through it again,” he said.
The largest lender in the country, State Bank of India has created job opportunities for youngsters willing to be a part of banking sector. It would be hiring as much as 5,000 employees on various posts for itself as well as for its associate banks.
As per requirements of the subsidiary banks, 1,000 probationary officers would be hired for State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, 1,416 for State Bank of Hyderabad, 1,328 for State Bank of Patiala, 843 for State Bank of Mysore and 400 for State Bank of Travancore and SBI itself will recruit around 206 officers.
Not only SBI, but other banks are soon to hire to meet their workforce requirements, it is estimated that all the public sector banks combined will hire around 45,000 employees during the year 2011-2012.
The last date to apply is 25th of June.
Due to the constant rise in the policy rates from Reserve Bank of India, the lenders and the borrowers are already in much pressure despite that the Central Bank is all set to hike the Key policy rates once again.
The Chairman of State bank of India Mr. Pratip Chaudhuri expressed his concern about the issue and said that the ongoing hike is no good and it might deter growth.
On the other hand RBI is taking all the necessary steps to rectify inflation and the hike in the interest rate is a part of its strategy.
The Central Bank has recently issued a discussion paper regarding the deregulation of the saving bank account interest rate, with which an individual could earn interest up to 6 percent on his saving account deposits. In this regard he said "We are not in favour of deregulation but adequate incentives for saving bank deposits. We will go along with whatever the Reserve Bank of India prescribes."
The teaser loan scheme of State Bank of India has been a topic of topic for quite some time now and has attracted a lot of controversies. The teaser loan scheme was a great success in the masses but was never appreciated by the Central Bank.
But now, RBI has given a clue that it want to fix this point causing discontent between RBI and SBI permanently. RBI has asked for clarification in the matter of the special home loan scheme from State Bank of India.
A senior SBI official said "We have received communication from RBI seeking clarification on certain issues relating to our special home loan scheme. We will send a reply by this weekend."
The chairman of SBI MR. Pratip Chaudhuri said “We are continuing with the schemes at present. At the same time, we are in dialogue with RBI and will try to address the concerns of the regulator, deliver value to the customer and also make sure the provisioning is affordable.”
The largest lender in the country State Bank of India has further extended its list of service, the latest addition being ‘affordable housing loan’ cell. First such facility has been set up in Nalla Sopara and initially will focus on providing home loans between 8-15 lakh.
The bank has launched this project on pilot basis and has formed an association with a few builders operating in the affordable housing segment so that the customers can get can every possible relevant information.
A bank official said "The facility will be set up near localities where affordable housing projects are undertaken. The cell is a distinct delivery structure, which has been designed to offer a simple model for appraisal/sanction methodology suited to the segment."
