KUALA LUMPUR: Several Malaysian banks have announced adjustments to their respective lending rates in line with Bank Negara Malaysia's cut in its Overnight Policy Rate (OPR).
Hong Leong Bank Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd and Standard Charted Malaysia will be reducing their base rate (BR) and base lending rate (BLR) by 25 bps.
Hong Leong Bank and Hong Leong Islamic Bank will be reducing BR and Islamic Base Rate (IBR) from 2.88 per cent to 2.63 per cent effective July 10, 2020.
The bank's loans and financing based on the BLR and Islamic Financing Rate (IFR) will be lowered from 5.89 per cent to 5.64 per cent.
The board rates of its fixed deposits will be revised lower by 25 bps as well.
Hong Leong Bank group managing director and chief executive officer Domenic Fuda said its is still early to see recovery as there are some businesses and households that continue to experience cash flow issues.
"This further reduction in interest rates will provide additional stimulus to accelerate the pace of the economic recovery in the second half of 2020," said Fuda.
On Tuesday, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), RHB Banking Group and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd became the first banks to immediately announce rate cuts after the OPR was reduced by 25 basis points (bps) to 1.75 per cent.
Further, Public Bank and Bank Islam Malaysia will also reduce its BR and BLR by 0.25 per cent effective July 10, 2020.
Public Bank's fixed deposit rates will also be correspondingly adjusted by 0.25 per cent, effective on the same date.
"The 25bps cut in OPR will further stimulate the country's economic recovery process.
"Public Bank is committed to provide continuous financial assistance to its customers to tide over this unprecedented challenging period," said Public Bank managing director and chief executive officer Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek.
Bank Islam chief executive officer Mohd Muazzam Mohamed said the revision is timely as the moratorium period is coming to an end.
Muazzam said the bank foresees the move to cushion the post-moratorium impact to the majority of its customers by easing their monthly installment commitments.
Bank Muamalat BR and BFR will be accordingly revised by 25 basis points from 2.81 per cent to 2.56 per cent and 5.81per cent to 5.56 per cent respectively, with effect from July 13, 2020.
This will affect all floating rate financing packages pegged to the BR and BFR.
In line with the reduction in BR and BFR, Bank Muamalat's FTA-i deposit rates will also be revised downward by 25 basis points.
Standard Chartered Malaysia and Standard Chartered Saadiq are also bringing down their BR to 2.27 per cent and BLR to 5.45 per cent effective July 14,2020.
The bank said the reductions also apply to the fixed deposits interest and Term Deposits-i profit rates across all tenors.