Bandhan Bank reduces lending rate by 1.48%

Bandhan Bank today cut its Marginal Cost of funds Based Lending Rate or MCLR by 148 basis points to 10.52 percent.

"We will continue to pass on the benefit of lower cost of funds to our borrowers," Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, MD and CEO, Bandhan Bank said.

"Our deposit portfolio has risen to Rs 19,000 crore and 27 percent of this is current and savings accounts (CASA)," he said.

The new rate takes effect from January 3. Following this, Bandhan Bank will now charge its micro borrowers (loan up to Rs 1,00,000) at 18.52 percent a year down from 19.90 percent.

With this, the bank has cut its loan rate for small borrowers by almost 4 percentage points since it started operations in August 2015.

Small borrowers account for 95 percent of the bank's Rs 18,500 crore credit portfolio.

The Kolkata-headquartered bank has two divisions -- general banking and micro banking, offering a suite of retail financial solutions, including a variety of savings and loan products.

The bank continues to offer 6 percent on the savings bank account interest rate for balance above Rs 1 lakh.