The new lending rate regime based on Marginal Cost of Funds will be implemented from April 01, 2016. There is a lot of anxiety among both potential and existing borrowers. It is because of uncertainty about the new lending rate. The key concern of a borrower is that we should not miss the bus. The new borrowers are postponing the home loan in anticipation of much lower interest rates. On the other hand existing borrowers are worried that banks may charge hefty conversion fees to shift them from Base Rate to new lending rate i.e. MCLR. This kind of anxiety was last seen when base rate replaced ... Read More
Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate – MCLR
The final guidelines on Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate is released by the RBI on Dec 17, 2015. The Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate will be implemented w.e.f April 01, 2016. There was strong opposition from banks to implement Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate. The objective of RBI is to pass the benefit of REPO Rate cut to borrowers. As i mentioned in my other posts that in last one year, RBI has cut REPO Rate by 125 basis point. On the other hand, an average base rate cut by banks is only 70 basis point. Technically, the Repo rate cut is not fully transmitted to ... Read More
Debt Mutual Funds – 7 Hidden Risks
Till few years back i was quite bullish on Debt Mutual Funds. The Great Crash of Debt Mutual Funds in July 2013 shattered my faith in Debt Mutual Funds. The most impacted funds were Liquid Mutual Funds that are considered to be safest among all. Liquid funds invest in money market instruments. The lower maturity period makes them best investment option for short term. I regained my faith in Debt Mutual Funds and invested in Long Term Debt Mutual Funds. The last one year is also not good, especially for long-term/gilt debt mutual funds. We will discuss this later in detail. The 1 month return ... Read More
Are You Ready For Prepayment Penalty?
There is famous saying that "Life comes FULL Circle" which is true for Prepayment Penalty on Home Loan. In 2011, prepayment penalty was first abolished by HFC's like HDFC Ltd, LICHFL, etc. followed by banks in 2012. Now same HFC's are demanding reintroduction of prepayment penalty. The background of this move in 2011 was differential interest rates charged to Existing Home Loan customers. Rather than fixing the core issue of equal interest rates for existing and new customer, NHB and RBI took an alternative route to abolishing prepayment penalty on floating interest home loans. In short, ... Read More
Impact of Base Rate Cut on Home Loans
Impact of Base Rate Cut on Home Loans is the hot topic these days. RBI surprised twice by out of cycle Repo Rate cuts of 25 basis points each or 0.25%, Banks were reluctant to cut Base Rate. Despite the public displeasure of both RBI and the Govt, Banks stood firm on their stand. As i highlighted in my post that RBI is King without Kingdom, a very little can be done by RBI in this regard. Rather i will say, its a cartelization similar to that of Telecom and Airline Companies. Only 2 banks i.e. Union Bank of India and United Bank of India cut the base rate to benefit customers. As these banks ... Read More