Top 5 Fixed Deposit interest rates in Govt, Private and Small Finance Banks amid Repo pause in August

On Wednesday, August 6, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has decided to keep the key interest rate (repo rate) unchanged at 5.5% and maintain the neutral stance.

When the central bank cuts the repo rate, banks and financial institutions can borrow money at a cheaper rate, which makes them lower their lending rates. However, along with loan rates, banks also lower their deposit rates, as they are no longer required to offer high rates to attract customers’ money.

In 2025, the RBI has cut the repo rate three times in its previous MPC meets, frontloading a 100 basis points (bps) repo rate cut, bringing it down to 5.5% in June from 6.5% in February.

Banks and financial institutions have also announced continuous fixed deposit (FD) rate cuts throughout the months, aligning them with the monetary policy. Most major banks in the country, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India, among others, have cut their FD rates after the central bank announced a repo rate cut.

This time, as the RBI has kept the rates unchanged, the banks could also keep their FD rates stable and wait before bringing any changes. However, the RBI is still expected to announce rate cuts in the coming months, which means that the FD rates might also decrease after the next MPC meeting. Further, banks revise their rates periodically, so they can lower rates before a repo rate cut as well, due to their own policies and other market conditions.

If you want to book an FD at a decent rate, some banks are offering the highest interest rates up to 8.50% per annum. Small finance banks are known to offer higher rates than other banks, and several small finance banks are offering very high rates even now, after all the FD rate cuts in the past few months. Let’s take a look at banks in the private, public sectors and small finance banks that are offering high rates:

Top 5 public sector bank FD interest rates

Top 5 private bank FD interest rates

Top 5 small finance bank FD interest rates

Many other banks are also offering high rates: For instance, the highest slab rate of HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank is 6.6%, while YES Bank is offering up to 7% on FDs. Customers must check and compare the rates of all banks and book an FD for a suitable tenure to access high rates before there are more rate cuts.