RBI Prepayment charges for floating rate home loans

RBI GOING TO SCRAP  PRE - PAYMENT CHARGES:

The Reserve Bank of India is going to order to the Banks to scrap the pre -payment charges on all the small and corporate loans.

RBI observed that there is no justification for banks to charge pre-payment charges on any loan since the entire system has moved to floating rates .
Banks are seen to be discriminatory between retain and big corporate clients who often arm twist lenders to charge them lower because of their sheer size and have no penalty clause.The tenure is extended when big corporate default and they restructure their loan portfolio and pay lower rates of interest.
Central Bank told that all the prepayment be abolished who did not wish to be named when all the loans are based on floating rates where is the question of penalty.

Bank loan are retail loans while the share of small and medium enterprise loan is about 15% .In the monetary policy review last week ,RBI Governor Mr.Rajan had advise bank to stop charging prepayment charges on floating rate loans and non maintenance of minimum balance.Bank may argue that there is a cost involved in offering services such as cheque book charges ATM charges( transaction ) and Account Statement necessitating a minimum balance of Rs.20000/-.Charges for non maintenance of minimum balance vary between Rs.500 to 2000 .this is not the first time bank and the sector regulator may be on collision course .

Three years ago Reserve Bank of India had directed banks not to charge any penalty on prepayment of home loans ,after a similar nudge did not work.However banks continue to charge prepayment penalty on other floating  rate loans products sch as education,personal and car loan.

Mr.Mahajan said that if a customer is unable to maintain minimum account, banks should migrate such accounts to basic banking accounts,where they phase out value added services.