Country's second largest lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Thursday cut its lending rate by 0.25 per cent, a development which will make auto, home and corporate loans cheaper.
"PNB has decided to decrease the base rate (or minimum lending rate) by 0.25 per cent from 10.50 per cent to 10.25 per cent with effect from February 9, 2013", the bank said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Other major banks like State Bank of India and HDFC Bank have already lowered the lending rates following the decision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut key (repo) rate by 0.25 per cent.
RBI also decided to inject Rs 18,000 crore of additional liquidity into the system by reducing the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by same margin.
The lowering of the lending rate by banks will provide relief to prospective borrowers of auto, home and corporate loans. It will also have a bearing on those existing borrowers who had obtained loans from banks at floating rate of interest.
The other banks which have lowered their lending rates include Federal Bank, IDBI Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
With the trend being set by market leaders, several other banks are likely to follow suit and lower their lending rates in the coming days.
Special 
