Amid concerns expressed by the Reserve Bank, country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) today announced withdrawal of special home loan schemes, or teaser rates, with effect from May 1.
SBI Easy Home Loan and SBI Advantage Home Loan (teaser rate products) will be replaced by floating interest rate schemes on par with other commercial banks.
Under the teaser home loan scheme, SBI was offering lower rate of interest of 8-8.5% for the first three years. It invited severe criticism from RBI, which had said the scheme could impact the asset quality of SBI's home loan portfolio.
The withdrawl of teaser rates comes within a month of the new chairman Pratip Chaudhuri taking charge at SBI.
The home loan from SBI will now attract an interest rate of 9.5% to 10.25% depending upon the loan amount, SBI said.
SBI has also launched the SBI Advantage Car loan Scheme, under which credit would be provided at 10.75% for a maximum period of 7 years.