After SBI, BoB links home loan product to RBI’s repo rate

Bank of Baroda customers opting for the home loan product would have a choice between MCLR-linked rate — indexed to the bank’s cost of funds — or a rate linked to Reserve Bank of India’s repo rate.

As the Bank of Baroda (BoB) on Sunday announced a new home loan product linked to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) repo rate. In doing so, BoB has gone the State Bank of India (SBI) way.

Following the latest Monetary Policy Committee decision to cut rates by 35 basis points (bps), several state-run banks, including Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Bank of India and Syndicate Bank, have expressed their intention to launch loan products linked to an external benchmark, which in most cases so far has been the repo rate. For the time being, the new products are largely restricted to home and auto loans.

BoB customers opting for the home loan product would have a choice between MCLR-linked rate — indexed to the bank’s cost of funds — or a rate linked to RBI’s repo rate.

The marginal cost of funds based lending Rate (MCLR)-linked product starts at 8.45 per cent. Meanwhile, home loans availed at repo rate-linked interest rate start at 8.35 per cent, passing on a further benefit of 10 bps to the current MCLR-rated pricing.