The country’s largest lender State Bank of India on Thursday slashed benchmark lending rate by 15 basis points (bps) or 0.15 per cent and introduced special deposit scheme for senior citizens with higher interest rate.

To safeguard the interests of senior citizens in the current falling rate regime, the bank has introduced a new product ‘SBI Wecare Deposit’ for them in the retail term deposit segment, SBI said in a statement.

Under this new product, an additional 30 basis points premium will be payable for senior citizen’s retail term deposits with “5 Years & above” tenor only, it said.

This scheme would be in effect up to September 30, it said.

However, SBI slashed its interest rates on retail term deposits by 20 basis points for ‘up to 3 Years’ tenor, effective from May 12 in view of adequate liquidity in the system as well as with the bank.

With regard to revision in the lending rate, the bank said, the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) comes down to 7.25 per cent from 7.40 per cent with effect from May 10.

Consequently, EMIs on eligible home loan accounts (linked to MCLR) will get cheaper by approximately Rs 255.00 for a 30-year loan of Rs 25 lakh, it said.

This is the twelfth consecutive reduction in the bank’s MCLR, the bank added.