As a part of financial sector reforms, the Reserve Bank has deregulated interest rates on deposits, other than savings bank deposits. The interest rate on savings bank deposits has remained unchanged at 3.5 per cent per annum since March 1, 2003.

Keeping in view progressive deregulation of interest rates, it was proposed in the Second Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2010-11 announced on November 2, 2010 to prepare a Discussion Paper to delineate the pros and cons of deregulating the savings bank deposits interest rate. It was proposed to place a Discussion Paper on the Reserve Bank’s website for feedback from general public.

Accordingly, this Discussion Paper is an attempt to deal with pros and cons of deregulating savings deposit interest rate and take on board the suggestions of various stakeholders for either maintaining the status quo or deregulating the savings deposit interest rate.

Download Deregulation of Savings Bank Deposit Interest Rate Report