This method of randomly changing the lending rates when the rating remains the same and other variables like the financial position and other fundamentals of the company remain the same is unfair to the corporate client. "In our inspection of banks, we have discovered that two entities that come with the same rating get two different rates. There should be a uniform rationale in pricing these loans.”

"In a deregulated environment, transparency in pricing assumes greater significance in ensuring that the risk is priced adequately and borrowers are charged interest in a fair manner," the central bank said in its second quarter policy statement released on October 24. As per Capitaline Neo data, the current 12 constituents of Bank Nifty index had collective interest income from advances to the tune of Rs 1,34,145 crore in the first two quarters of FY12, up 37 per cent from the corresponding aggregate of Rs 97,388 crore in FY11. The Bank Nifty constituents are Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Oriental Bank, PNB, SBI and Union Bank.

Senior bankers who did not want to be quoted said the loan is priced depending on risk perception of the client. "They may have the same rating, but in our perception, we could take a view that their revenues could be impacted because projects are going on stream, etc. Company pays the rating agency that rates it and so may have a vested interest. For a bank, it is a business decision,” said a senior banker.

RBI is of the view that banks should bring down their net interest margins (NIMs) but improve profitability by improving operational efficiencies.

According to an RBI report, this was released last week, on the trend and progress of banking in India, “Maintaining profitability is a challenge, especially in a highly competitive and high interest environment. However, a detailed analysis showed that NIM that is already high in India compared with some of the emerging economies increased further. Thus, there is a need to reduce NIM increase other income and reduce operating expenses in the interest of efficiency and profitability.”

RBI has already set up a working committee to look into the pricing issues for retail customers especially on floating rate home loan and prepayment clauses for retail loan like home or car loan. But an RBI official confirmed that even large ticket loans extended to companies will be extensively evaluated for fair pricing.

From July 2010, RBI brought in the base rate concept fixing a floor under which no loan can be priced. But now, banks try to keep the base rate low to meet the short term funding requirements of companies, which otherwise could have migrated to the debt markets in the form of commercial papers. It was to bring in greater transparency that RBI did away with the BPLR (benchmark prime lending rate) for customers as banks kept high BPLR and continued to lend much below that for large corporate clients while the smaller clients and retail customers were charged at higher rates of interest.