State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, has revised several key interest rate benchmarks across retail deposits and loans, announcing marginal reductions in both lending and deposit rates
effective December 15, 2025. The changes impact domestic retail term deposits below Rs 3 crore, the Marginal Cost of Funds-Based Lending Rate (MCLR), the External Benchmark Linked Rate (EBLR), and the Base Rate.
Minor Changes in Retail Term Deposit Rates
Most retail term deposit slabs remain unchanged. However, SBI has reduced the interest rate for its popular 444-day ‘Amrit Vrishti’ deposit scheme, cutting returns from 6.60% to 6.45% beginning December 15. Senior citizens will continue to receive higher rates across all tenors, but only one slab shows a revision: the 2 to less than 3 years tenor, where the senior citizen rate has been trimmed from 6.95% to 6.90%. General public will receive 6.40% interest on this tenure, against 6.45% earlier. All other deposit categories remain unchanged.
Lending Rates See Broad-Based Reductions
SBI has eased borrowing costs by reducing MCLR rates across all tenors by 5 basis points. The revised MCLRs are:
- Overnight: 7.85% (earlier 7.90%)
- One month: 7.85% (7.90%)
- Three months: 8.25% (8.30%)
- Six months: 8.60% (8.65%)
- One year: 8.70% (8.75%)
- Two years: 8.75% (8.80%)
- Three years: 8.80% (8.85%)
This across-the-board softening is expected to bring relief to borrowers with loans linked to MCLR, including certain categories of home, auto, and MSME loans.
EBLR and Base Rate Also Reduced
In a notable move, SBI has also lowered its External Benchmark Linked Rate (EBLR), which is widely used to price retail floating-rate loans, from 8.15% to 7.90%, marking a 25-basis-point cut.
The bank’s Base Rate, applicable to a small segment of legacy borrowers, has also been reduced from 10.00% to 9.90%, effective the same day.
What the Changes Mean for Borrowers and Depositors
For borrowers, the reduction in MCLR, EBLR, and Base Rate signals cheaper loan servicing costs from mid-December, particularly for customers whose interest resets are due soon. Home loan EMIs linked to EBLR, in particular, may see noticeable relief.
Depositors, on the other hand, will see largely stable returns across most term deposit buckets, except for the modest reduction in the 444-day Amrit Vrishti scheme.
