Pvt banks to reduce rates within fortnight

Following a meeting with finance secretary Arun Ramanathan, private banks today indicated that they will cut lending and deposit rates within next 15 days. Federal Bank's Managing Director M Venugopalan said his bank will consider lowering by 50 bps. ICICI Bank's Deputy Managing Director Chanda Kochhar said: "Both deposit and lending rates have to come down in the interest of the country."