ICICI Bank has cut the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) by five basis points (bps) across tenors from its previous benchmark rates.

As per the bank's website, it has reduced these lending rates for overnight and one-month tenors to 8.5 percent from the previous 8.55 percent, three-month tenor to 8.55 percent from the previous 8.60, six-month tenor to 8.7 percent from the previous 8.75 percent and one-year tenor to 8.75 percent from the previous 8.8 percent. The ICICI Bank's MCLR benchmarks are effective from April 1, 2019.

MCLR is an internal reference rate for banks to decide what interest they can levy on loans.

In February, the Reserve Bank, had cut the key repo rate by 25 bps to 6.25 per cent in its bi-monthly policy review.

ICICI Bank's overall advances rose by 12 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to nearly Rs 5.64 lakh crore as of December 2018.

Last month, a number of other lenders like HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, YES Bank and Union Bank of India had reduced their MCLR in select tenors by 5-15 basis points.

Kotak Mahindra Bank had also reduced its MCLR by 10 basis points in select tenors. The private sector lender had reduced other rates by five basis points on March 1.

This move comes ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy meeting later this week.

Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) begins this financial year's first bi-monthly three-day policy review meeting on April 2. The MPC will announce its policy decision on April 4.

(Edited by Rupa Burman Roy)