Bank of Maharashtra employees' union for term deposit rate hike

Writes to management, says bank losing deposits to other lenders

At a time when banks are aggressively raising interest rates on term deposits due to widening gap between credit and deposit growth, the interest rate differential on the maximum rate by Bank of Maharashtra and other public sector lenders is about 75 basis points (bps).

As a result, the bank is losing deposits to other banks, the Pune-based public sector lender’s employee union has said in a letter to the management.

The bank is offering a peak rate of 6.30 per cent on term deposits of up to Rs 10 crore while the peak interest rate for deposits of up to Rs 2 crore is 6.15 per cent. 

Senior citizens are offered an additional 50 bps on all maturity slabs. In comparison, other PSBs, such as State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, and Bank of India, are offering peak interest rates of 6.75 per cent, 7.05 per cent, 7.25 per cent, 7 per cent, and 7.05 per cent, respectively.

The union has urged the bank to raise interest on fixed deposits offered to senior citizens to 7.10 per cent for 1–3-year tenor and above 6.50 per cent for others.

In a letter to the managing director and chief executive officer of Bank of Maharashtra, the union said, “It is observed that some of our branches are already losing good balances in their savings deposits as well as fixed deposits, which are maturing, to the other banks”.

“… we request the bank to increase the maximum fixed deposit rate offered to senior citizens (public) to at least 7.10 per cent, preferably for a specific period in the 1–3-year bracket, they said.

While Bank of Maharashtra reported 22 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in advances to Rs 1.57 trillion in Q3FY23, its deposits grew 12 per cent YoY to Rs 2.08 trillion. On a sequential basis, advances of the lender grew 6.02 per cent while deposits saw 6.42 per cent growth. The current and savings account ratio (CASA) ratio, however, has gone down to 52.50 per cent as of December 2022.

Since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is on a monetary tightening path, resulting in rates on assets and liabilities rising, any interest differential in excess of 50 bps on deposits among major PSBs is likely to result in an exodus of deposits favouring banks, which offer high-interest rates, the union has said.

The union has observed that 7.10 per cent has become the new benchmark for interest rates on fixed deposits across the banking industry. To derive a psychological advantage in order to retain existing depositors as well as bring in new customers, the maximum rate offered by Bank of Maharashtra should, at least, be above the new benchmark of 7 per cent, the union said in their letter.

The bank’s MD & CEO, A S Rajeev, did not respond to messages from Business Standard seeking a comment on the issue.