Slew of State-run Banks announce plans to cut interest rates

New Delhi, Nov 4 (UNI) Taking the signal from Finance Minister P Chidambaram that Public Sector Banks(PSBs) need to price credit ''appropriately'', several of these Banks today announced their plans to cut interest rates, including SBI Chief O P Bhatt saying that his Bank may lower lending rates by 25 to 50 basis points.

State Bank of India, the nation's largest Bank, will decide on cutting interest rates this week, Mr Bhatt said after meeting the Finance Minister at the CEOs enclave. .
``There was a consensus among bankers that there is a downward bias in interest rates,'' Mr Bhatt said.
He said he visualises interest rates softening and plans for cutting lending and deposit rates by 25 to 50 bps in one or two days.
SBI may reduce its Prime Lending Rate by 50 bps.
Mr Bhatt said credit was likely to grow by 28 per cent and deposits 25 to 26 per cent.
The following are the announcements by other Banks in this regard:
---PNB says there could be a further cut in lending rates;
--- Syndicate Bank today cut BPLR by 75 bps to 13.25 per cent;
--- Bank of India likely to cut lending rate by 50 bps in three to four days;
--- Bank of Baroda to cut lending rate by 75 bps on Wednesday;
--- UCO Bank likely to cut PLR by 50 bps to 13.5 per cent;