RBI cut repo rate in Feb. Why did it take so long for banks to reduce interest rates?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) initiated the much-expected rate-cut cycle in February. The repo rate was cut from 6.5% to 6.25% on 7 February.
A rate cut leads to an easing of interest rates on loans. However, loan rates have just started easing, after a rather longer transmission period. Let us look at how transmission of rate action from the RBI percolates to the ground.
The repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to banks if required, one day at a time. When the RBI wants to increase or decrease interest rates in the economy, they increase or decrease the repo rate. Hence, this is the signal rate to the system for adjusting interest rates accordingly.
Immediate transmission of repo rate changes happens to the inter-bank call money market. The reason is that the repo rate is the pivot on which money market rates revolve. Changes to money market yields, i.e., traded levels of treasury bills or bank CDs, happen fast as a ripple effect of changes in the call money market.
Traded yield levels of government bonds change fast, rather in anticipation of the RBI rate action, even before the rate action. Transmission to banking deposit and lending rates is a function of the type of loan. In floating-rate loans, the RBI has allowed three benchmarks for banks to choose.
One is the repo rate, one is the three-month treasury bill yield, and the other is the six-month treasury bill yield. These are called external benchmarks, as they cannot be controlled or influenced by any one bank. Fixed-rate loans are benchmarked to marginal cost-based lending rates (MCLR).
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