In a major respite to the large number of home loan borrowers, India’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), has announced that it will not levy any kind of the pre-payment charges effective from November 21 on its home loans whether it is fixed or floating.

“The main motive behind this decision is to provide a great deal of convenience to the customer. Secondly, it was aimed at eliminating the difference between old and new customers. Also, if the service is good customers will stay anyway,” said a senior banker in SBI’s personal loan department.

Earlier, the customers were required to pay a certain percentage of the home loan pre-payment charges, if they wanted to repay the amount in full to the banks or home finance companies before the due date.