Current RBI Policy & Reserve Rates

Repo Rate: 8% (Unchanged) 

Reverse Repo: 7% (Unchanged) 
CRR : 4% (Unchanged)
SLR : 23% (Unchanged)
MSF : 9% (Unchanged)
Bank Rate : 9% (Unchanged)

1. Basis points: It is the increase in interest rates in percentage terms. For instance, if the interest rate increases by 50 basis points bsp), then it means that interest rate has been increase by 50%. One percentage point is broken down into 100 basis points. Therefore, an increase from 2% to 3% is an increase of one percentage point or 100 basis points.

2. CRR: Cash reserve Ratio (CRR) is the amount of funds that the banks have to keep with RBI. If RBI decides to increase the percent of this, the available amount with the banks comes down. RBI is using this method (increase of CRR rate), to drain out the excessive money from the banks. The current rate is 4%, which means for a cash deposit of Rs. 100, the bank has to park 4 rupee with the central bank.

3. Repo rate: Repo rate is the policy rate and is part of RBI’s Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF). It is the rate at which commercial banks borrow from the RBI by selling their securities or financial assets to the RBI or a short-period of time. It comes with an agreement that the sold securities will be repurchased by the commercial banks from the RBI at a future date at predetermined price. The repo rate is used by the central bank to increase liquidity in the system.

4. Reverse repo rate: Reverse Repo Rate is also a part of LAF. It is the rate of interest at which the central bank borrows funds from other banks for a short duration. The banks deposit their short term excess funds with the central bank and earn interest on it. This rate is used by the central bank to absorb liquidity from the economy. Generally it is one percentage less than the Repo rate.

5. Bank rate: The only way the bank rate is different from the repo rate is that the bank rate is the rate at which banks borrow money from the central bank without any sale of securities. It is generally for a longer period of time

6. Marginal Standing Facility: The Reserve Bank of India in its monetary policy for 2011-12 introduced the marginal standing facility under which banks could borrow funds from RBI when there is a considerable shortfall of liquidity. This measure has been introduced by RBI to regulate short-term asset liability mismatches more effectively. Under this facility, banks can borrow up to 1% of their net demand.

7. Liquidity Adjustment Facility: Under this facility, banks borrow from the central bank by pledging government securities.

8. Statutory Liquidity Ratio: This is the percentage of deposits that banks must mandatorily hold in the form of government bonds. SLR bonds are liquid assets that can be sold at a short notice to meet any unexpected demand from depositors.