Bangalore, May 14

Syndicate Bank repriced its bulk deposits, shaving off as much as 2 per cent of the interest in the current financial year (2008-09).

Addressing media persons here on Wednesday, Syndicate Bank’s Executive Director, Mr George Joseph, said, “We have taken a decision to contain bulk deposits in the current year.” The bank took the decision after it took a hit on the net interest margin (NIM) for the last financial year.

NIM, which is the spread between the interest earned and the interest expended, dropped by 15 basis points in the financial year 2007-08 over the corresponding period of the previous year.

Syndicate Bank had bulk deposits of about Rs 30,000 crore in FY08 or about 31 per cent of its global deposits portfolio of Rs 95,171 crore.

Mr Joseph said that part of the reduction in NIM also stemmed from the increase in the cash reserve ratio.

The bank had taken a hit of Rs 150 crore on account of the hike, he said. In FY08, CRR was hiked by 1.75 per cent.

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