Bank Rate
- How often
- At policy meetingsMoves with the MSF rate
- Next release
- Fri 4 DecIn 22 days · 10:00 AM
Raised by 25 bp, effective 7 October 2026.
Events on this chart
Source: RBI, released 7 Oct 2026 · Chart: Clarity UPSC
- Previous
- 5.50%5 Dec 2025
- Highest
- 10.25%15 Jul 2013
- Lowest
- 4.25%22 May 2020
43 readings since 17 Feb 2001.
Story
A long-standing standard rate of the Reserve Bank of India, now kept equal to the Marginal Standing Facility rate and used to set penalties.
What is happening now As of 7 Oct 2026
The Bank Rate rose to 5.75% on 7 October 2026. The Monetary Policy Committee raised the repo rate by 0.25 percentage point to 5.50% because inflation and its outlook had worsened. The Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate moved to 0.25 percentage point above the repo rate, and the Bank Rate moved with it, as it has since February 2012.
Penal interest on shortfalls in the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), charged above the Bank Rate, rose by the same amount. The Bank Rate is back at its level of a year earlier; it was 5.50% from December 2025 until this rise.
Why it matters
The Bank Rate sets the penalty for banks that fall short of their reserve requirements. A bank that keeps too little cash under the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), or too few safe assets under the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR), pays penal interest linked to the Bank Rate. A CRR shortfall, for example, costs 3 percentage points above the Bank Rate, far more than borrowing from the Reserve Bank of India. That gives banks a strong reason to keep to the rules. Some other organisations use the Bank Rate as a reference rate, so its changes reach them too.
What it is
The Bank Rate is the standard rate at which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is ready to buy or rediscount bills of exchange and other commercial paper. Buying such a bill before it falls due is a way of lending money against it. Section 49 of the RBI Act, 1934 requires the RBI to publish the rate.
The rate stayed at 6% from April 2003 while the repo rate became the main policy rate. On 13 February 2012 the RBI raised it to 9.50% to match the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate. Since then it has moved with the MSF rate, which now sits 0.25 percentage point above the repo rate.
Its main use today is as the base for penalties. A bank that falls short of its Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) or Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) pays penal interest linked to the Bank Rate. Some other organisations use it as a reference rate for indexation.
Read this number
- The publisher
- The Reserve Bank of India is India's central bank. It manages money supply, bank regulation, the rupee and the country's foreign exchange reserves.
- Law
- RBI Act, 1934, Section 49
- Position
- Equal to the MSF rate
Terms on this page (4)
- CRR
- Cash Reserve Ratio
- MSF
- Marginal Standing Facility
- RBI
- Reserve Bank of India
- SLR
- Statutory Liquidity Ratio
History
- 29 Apr 2003Cut to 6%. It stays there for almost nine years.
- 13 Feb 2012Raised by 3.5 percentage points to 9.50% to match the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) calls it a one-time technical adjustment, not a change in its policy stance. Penal rates on reserve shortfalls rise with it.
- 15 Jul 2013Rises with the MSF rate to 10.25%, as part of RBI measures to restore stability in the foreign exchange market.
- 6 Apr 2017The RBI narrows the rate corridor. The MSF rate and the Bank Rate are set 0.25 percentage point above the repo rate.
Readings
| Period | Value | Status | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct 2026 | 5.75% | Final | 7 Oct 2026 |
| 5 Dec 2025 | 5.50% | Final | 5 Dec 2025 |
| 6 Jun 2025 | 5.75% | Final | 6 Jun 2025 |
| 9 Apr 2025 | 6.25% | Final | 9 Apr 2025 |
| 7 Feb 2025 | 6.50% | Final | 7 Feb 2025 |
| 8 Feb 2023 | 6.75% | Final | 8 Feb 2023 |
| 7 Dec 2022 | 6.50% | Final | 7 Dec 2022 |
| 30 Sep 2022 | 6.15% | Final | 30 Sep 2022 |
| 5 Aug 2022 | 5.65% | Final | 5 Aug 2022 |
| 8 Jun 2022 | 5.15% | Final | 8 Jun 2022 |
| 4 May 2022 | 4.65% | Final | 4 May 2022 |
| 22 May 2020 | 4.25% | Final | 22 May 2020 |
For UPSC
The Bank Rate is published under Section 49 of the Reserve Bank of India Act and has equalled the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate since 13 February 2012; today both sit 0.25 percentage point above the repo rate. Its main job is to set penal interest on shortfalls in the Cash Reserve Ratio and the Statutory Liquidity Ratio. The Monetary Policy Committee decides only the repo rate; the Standing Deposit Facility rate, the MSF rate and the Bank Rate adjust around it.