'Give fixed rate home loan options'

THE Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday asked banks and other lenders to provide individual borrowers with an option of switching over to a fixed rate at the time of reset of interest rates.

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RBI released detailed guidelines to reset interest rates for equated monthly installments (EMI) in floating-interest loans. The guidelines come after several borrowers raised concerns about elongation of loan tenor or increase in EMI amount, without proper communication. The central bank, on August 8, in its monetary policy review said it would shortly issue the guidelines regarding this issue. "At the time of sanction, RES (Regulated Entities) shall clearly communicate to the borrowers about the possible impact of change in benchmark interest rate on the loan leading to changes in EMI and/or tenor or both. Subsequently, any increase in the EMI/ tenor or both on account of the above shall be communicated to the borrower immediately t