Housing, auto and personal loan customers of the country's largest private lender ICICI Bank will get their new year gift in the form of a cut in interest rates, its CEO and Managing Director K V Kamath said on Monday."We are looking at cutting interest rates very early in January for our housing and other loan customers," Kamath said over telephone from Mumbai."The lowering of interest rate would be in new year," he said when asked if the bank was all set to give a new year gift to its customers.The extent of the rate cut is being calibrated and would be announced soon, he said when asked if the rate could be more than 100 basis points.ICICI had earlier this month reduced home loan rates for new customers by up to 1.5 percentage point. There are indications that the fresh cut in interest rates would benefit both existing and new customers.The Prime Lending Rate of the bank currently stands at 17.25 per cent. The bank last revised the benchmark lending rate by effecting 75 basis points hike in August this year.SBI, the largest bank, has cut its prime lending rate by 75 basis points to 12.25 per cent with effect from January 1.Home loan major HDFC has also cut its prime lending rate by 50 basis points, while a number of other private and public sector lenders such as HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda have also announced rate cuts.Earlier in the day, two leading public sector lenders Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda said they would reduce their prime lending rates by 50 and 75 basis points respectively, with effect from January 1.
