Time to keep it safe and flexible Maulik Madhu BL Research Bureau | Updated on January 02, 2021 × In its efforts to spur economic growth following the Covid-19 pandemic, the RBI announced a sharp 75-basis point (bps) cut in the repo rate in March 2020, followed by another 40-bps cut in May. With this, the repo rate has come down from 5.15 per cent at the start of the year to 4 per cent now. In line with this move, large commercial banks slashed their deposit rates by 70-160 bps over the past year or so. Small finance banks (SFBs) followed suit with cuts of 100-150 bps.