Kotak Mahindra raises base rate, BPLR by 50 bps

An employee counts currency notes at a cash counter inside a bank in Mumbai June 21, 2010.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Private lender Kotak Mahindra Bank said on Monday it has raised its base rate by 50 basis points to 9.25 percent and benchmark prime lending rate by a similar quantum effective May 10.

All categories of loans, other than exceptions permitted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will henceforth be priced with the reference to the revised base rate, it said in a statement to the stock exchanges.

ICICI Bank, India's second-largest lender, said on Friday it would raise its benchmark base rate by 50 basis points to 9.25 percent per annum with effect from Saturday.

Last week, the RBI raised the repo and reverse repo rate by a larger-than-expected 50 basis points to battle a stubbornly high inflation.

(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Harish Nambiar)