In a clear signal of a rising interest rate regime, country's largest private sector

RELATED ARTICLES Singapore's Temasek unit sells ICICI Bank shares worth Rs 1,500 cr ICICI Bank shares fall 1.7%t after block deals High input costs, interest rate eat into profit margin Temasek selling 1.4% of ICICI Bank ICICI Bank signs $300m loan with Japan banks

lender, ICICI Bank, today said it has hiked itsauto loan rates by up to 0.5 per cent and withdrawn its 8.25 per cent special home-loan scheme.

"Auto loans rack rates have been raised by 0.25-0.5 per cent depending on segment and tenor with effect from March 5," an ICICI Bank spokesperson said.

Though the bank did not give any reason for the rate hike, industry experts said that the rate increase was largely prompted by signals communicated by the Reserve Bank in its last monetary policy review.

With a view to suck out excess liquidity from the system, the RBI hiked the cash reserve ratio or the amount banks have to keep with RBI for zero interest by 0.75 per cent to 5.75 per cent, absorbing Rs 36,00-crore from the system.

Following the hike, interest rates for new auto loans will now be in the range of 9.75-11 per cent.

ICICI Bank also withdrew its special home-loan scheme, under which it offered home-loans for 8.25 per cent fixed rate for two years, effective from March 1, the spokesperson added.

On home-loans, ICICI bank is currently offering home-loans for up to Rs 30-lakh at 8.75 per cent, loans between Rs 30-lakh to Rs 50-lakh at 9 per cent and those above Rs 50-lakh, at 9.50 per cent.

Another private sector lender, Kotak Mahindra Bank and the group's car-loan financing arm also announced hikes in their home and car-loan rates respectively today.

While Kotak Mahindra Bank has hiked its home-loan rates by 0.25-0.5 per cent with effect from February 18, Kotak Mahindra Prime, which is the dedicated car financing arm of group, has hiked its loan rates by 0.5-0.75 per cent.

"We decided to hike the interest rates for home-loans by 0.25-0.5 per cent. This is primarily to align lending rates in line with the cost of deposits," Kotak Mahindra Bank's Head of Retail Assets, Kamalesh Rao, said.

The bank's home-loan portfolio grew by 50 per cent in the current year, he said.

Kotak Mahindra Prime's Chief Executive Officer, Sumit Bali, said the hike in lending rates will come in to effect from March 8.

"We are hiking the lending rates as the cost of funds have gone up by up to 0.75 per cent. We have to pass on this additional cost to customers, which we didn't do last month" Bali said.

KMP has a a total loan-book of around Rs 6,500-crore, which grew by around 35 per cent in the current financial year. Moving ahead, the company expects a loan growth in the range of 15-20 per cent, Bali said.