Standard Chartered Bank Home Loan Review

Company Profile

Standard Chartered Bank was formed with the merger of two banks viz. The Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China and the Standard Bank of British South Africa. The merger took place in the year 1969. Standard Chartered Bank is a London based bank, currently operational within over 70 nations with more than 1,700 branches as of April 2009. Although the bank is located in Britain, still a huge chunk of its revenues originate from the continents of Asia, Africa and Middle East.

In India, the Standard Chartered Bank introduced its first branch in Kolkata on 12th April, 1858. Later the bank administration shifted base to Mumbai. Currently, the bank offers a wide variety of banking services and products to the Indian customers under Personal Banking, Private Banking, SME Banking and Wholesale Banking categories.

The bank offers home loan for purchase of a plot, purchase of a constructed flat/house, purchasing a flat under construction and/or for home extension and renovation at a fixed rate of interest.

Analysis

Loan To Value Ratio – Standard Chartered Bank Home Loans can be applied for a maximum of 80% of the property value subject to credit discretion and are accompanied by a specially-designed insurance cover. This feature is very much comparable to other products in the market; banks like ICICI, PNB and SBI offer loans up to 80% of the property value. Few banks are more lenient when it comes to loan to value ratio.

Tenure – Standard Chartered Bank Home Loans are available for a minimum tenure of 5 years and maximum tenure of up to 20 years.

Interest Rate – Fixed interest is charged @ 9.5%.

Prepayment Charges – On prepayment of the loan, in part or full, a loan seeker is charged an early redemption charge of 2.5 % of the amount being prepaid. As against this, other banks like ICICI and HDFC charge only 2% of the loan amount as ‘prepayment charges’.

Processing Fees – Processing fee varies from 0.50 % – 1.50% of the sanctioned loan amounts depending upon the scheme one opts for. It is at par with IDBI Bank’s processing fees charged @ 0.5% or Rs. 11, 000 whichever is lower.