State Bank of India (SBI) has no plans to hike lending rates immediately despite the RBI's decision to increase policy rates by 25 basis points, Chairman O P Bhatt said on Saturday.
The country's largest bank will prefer to wait for further signals from the central bank before taking a call on lending rates, he said.
"There is no plan to hike our lending rates immediately. We will wait till the April policy to take a call on raising lending rates," the SBI chairman told reporters.
Bhatt also said that he did not see any immediate impact from Friday's central bank move on rates as liquidity continued to be strong in the banking system and there was not enough credit growth.
Commenting on the SBI's credit growth, Bhatt said the bank has targeted a credit growth of 20% in the next financial year on the back of improving demand.
The SBI chairman also said that the central bank may tighten monetary policy further at its annual review on April 20. "It is possible.....there may be some more tightening in the offing," Bhatt told reporters in Mumbai today.
Separately, Bhatt said that SBI has approached the RBI for its approval to acquire up to 30% stake in Tata Motors Finance. "We have written to the Reserve Bank. We are awaiting a response," Bhatt said.
SBI is looking at buying around 30% stake in the vehicle financing arm of Tata Motors as acquiring a stake beyond that level will require approval from the Government, he added.
"To acquire beyond 30% we have to go to the Government for clearance. So we will take somewhere between 20% and 30%. That means we need the approval only from the RBI," Bhatt said.