Mumbai: HDFC Bank is planning to take a call on lowering its lending rates in certain retail products during the upcoming festive season, a senior official said.

"From a tactical point of view, we will respond to the market, remain competitive...if the market is moving in a certain direction, we will also remain competitive and I think that is something which we will rollout in the next few weeks," HDFC Bank Executive Director Paresh Sukhtankar said.

He, however, did not disclose more details, saying, "I do not have anything to convey in a definitive manner."

ICICI Bank had last week announced lending rate cut up to 1 percent in home loans. SBI has already announced rate cuts while the ICICI announcement was preceded by similar moves by others like Vijaya Bank.

Only SBI has cut its base rate while the other banks have gone for reducing their spreads in loan categories.

Sukhtankar said there are two dimensions to a call on cutting rates.

The first is the more structural driver of the movement of cost of funds which is determined by the deposit rates while the second, driven by competition, are tactical moves aimed at gaining market share and remaining competitive during a busy season.

During the last quarter, deposit rates have gone down by as much as 0.75 percent, and there is little scope for them to go down further, he said.

On the base rate, Sukhtankar said it is dependent on the movement of the deposit rates and the credit policy initiatives to be announced by the Reserve Bank on October 30.

Like other banks, HDFC Bank will also take a call on the base rate during the quarter, he added.

"At sometime during the quarter, we certainly have to recalibrate the base rate," he said.