The city-based Canara Bank has revised interest rates downwards on domestic term and non-resident external term deposits by 0.25 per cent from April 01, 2002.
The revised interest rate for schedule for deposits of less than Rs 15 lakh are: 5.75 per cent for 15 to 45 days; 5.5 per cent for 46 to 90 days; 6 per cent for 91 to 179 days; 6.5 per cent for 180 days to less than one year; 7.5 per cent for one year to less than two years; 7.75 per cent for two years to less than three years and 8 per cent for three years and above.
For senior citizens, interest rates on term deposits will be one per cent over the rates applicable for domestic term deposits.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports from New Delhi that Corporation Bank will consider trimming lending and deposit rates soon.
"We'll respond now. Our asset-liability committee, which decides on these things, will meet soon," chairman and managing director K Cherian Varghese told reporters on Thursday.
State Bank of India, the nation's largest commercial bank which accounts for a fifth of the industry's deposits and loans, cut its prime lending rate to 11 percent on Wednesday.
A change in rates by SBI is usually seen as a signal for the rest of the banking system to follow suit.
India's state-dominated banking system is under pressure to cut lending rates after a 50-basis-points cut in the rate on government administered savings schemes from March 1.
These schemes have been a major obstacle for banks seeking to lower deposit rates as their post-tax returns were more than 13 percent compared with a maximum return of nine percent on bank deposits.
Varghese did not say by how much Corporation Bank, one of India's most efficiently-run banks, would cut its rates, but said any change in lending rates would be accompanied by changes in the bank's deposit rates too.
Corporation Bank, whose operating costs are among the lowest in India's banking industry, charges its prime borrowers 11.5 percent now.
Earlier, the bank, in which the government holds a 56 percent stake and state-owned Life Insurance Corp another 27 percent, said it had commissioned a network of 101 automated teller machines (ATMs) across the country, taking the total to 125.
The bank, based in the southern city of Mangalore, hopes to increase the ATM network to 500 machines by the end of 2003 as part of a major thrust to expand its retail customer base.
Corporation Bank, one of India's smaller state-run banks, has set aside 700 million rupees ($14.34 million) for spending on information technology, the bulk of which will be used for computerising and networking most of its 650-odd branches.
About 430 of the bank's branches are computerised but are yet to be networked.
The bank, which reported a 21 percent increase in its net profit for the nine-month period to December 2001 to Rs 263 crore, also launched Internet banking services, which can be accessed by customers of 25 branches.
