HDFC Bank to cut lending rate by March: MD Puri

Having cut its deposit offering by up to 0.50 per cent, the country’s second-largest private sector lender HDFC Bank will be cutting its lending rate by March, a top official said on Friday. “Now I’ve reduced my fixed deposit rates, and you will see by March or so base rate will come down,” the bank’s Managing Director Aditya Puri said. Puri said base rate or the minimum rate of lending is computed on the cost of deposits and the bank cannot cut its lending rate unless the deposit rate comes down. Once the cost of deposits come down, following the 1 December cut in short-term deposits of up to one year maturities, the bank will pass on the benefit to borrowers, he added. The bank’s base rate currently stands at 10 per cent.