SBI waives processing fees on personal loans

MUMBAI: In a bid to boost its retail loan portfolio, the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has waived processing fees on most of its retail loans. This is in addition to the existing waiver of fees on takeover of home loans from other lenders.

In a statement issued on Monday, the bank said that it will waive upto 100 per cent processing fee on car loans, personal gold loans and other personal loans. This is part of a 'festival bonanza' programme announced by the bank. The waiver of fees on car loans is valid for applications received till December 31, 2017. Separately, SBI has also waived 50 per cent of the processing fee on personal gold loans till October 31, 2017. Till September 30, 2017, customers can avail 50 per cent waiver on processing fee on Xpress Credit - a personal loan offering by the bank.

The retail push comes three weeks after the bank announced a cut in the savings bank rate. Since then the Reserve Bank of India also reduced its key policy rate by 25 basis points. According to officials, SBI's marginal cost of lending rate (MCLR) - the benchmark rate on which all loans are prices - could be lowered when it comes up for review this month-end.

The MCLR like the name suggests is based on the bank's incremental cost of funds. The cost of funds has come down significantly with the downward revision of the savings deposit rate. SBI has a deposit base of 26.02 lakh crore with CASA ratio of 43.81 per cent.