Yes Bank cuts savings account interest rate by up to 1 percent

Private sector lender Yes Bank on Wednesday reduced the interest rate on savings bank accounts by 1 per cent to 5 percent for deposits of less than Rs 1 lakh.

However, the bank will continue to pay 6 percent interest on deposits of over Rs 1 lakh and less than Rs 1 crore. The bank has also slashed interest rate on savings accounts to 6.25 percent from existing 6.5 percent for deposits over Rs 1 crore.

The new rates would be effective from September 1, Yes Bank said in a statement.

Yes Bank is the fifth lender to reduce saving account interest rate after market leader State Bank of India (SBI) begun the process of reducing the interest rate. On July 31, SBI slashed interest rate on savings account deposits by 50 basis points to 3.5 percent on balance of Rs 1 crore and below.