ICICI Bank cuts home loan rates by 150 bps to 11.5 per cent

ICICI Bank, the country's second lender, today announced a 1.5 percentage point reduction in interest rates on home loans, to 11.5 per cent from 13 per cent earlier, for all loans below Rs20 lakh.

The announcement was immediately after the Reserve Bank reduced its key rates and announced a package of measures for the recession-hit sectors like small industries, exports and real estate

The rates will be available for new loans and existing loans will continue to be charged at the earlier rates as the bank has made no change in its prime lending rate.

ICICI hopes the move to help revive demand for property. Several public sector banks have already announced a cut in their PLR.

Yes Bank cut its PLR by 0.50 percentage point, in response to RBI's decision to cut the repo and reverse repo rates. The reduction would be effective 8 December, the bank said.

"After our asset-liability committee meeting today, we have decided to reduce our PLR by 0.50 per cent," managing director and CEO Rana Kapoor said.