VRR result, 7-day, 19 Oct: banks bid ₹1.5 lakh crore, RBI lends ₹1 lakh crore
Banks asked for ₹1,50,735 crore but RBI lent only ₹1,00,014 crore for 7 days, at a cut-off rate of 5.51%.
Official title: Result of the 7-day Variable Rate Repo (VRR) auction held on October 19, 2026 · Press Release 2026-2027/1347
What happened
In the 7-day Variable Rate Repo (VRR) auction on 19 October 2026, RBI offered ₹1,00,000 crore. Banks bid for ₹1,50,735 crore, about one and a half times the amount on offer. RBI allotted ₹1,00,014 crore. The cut-off rate was 5.51% and the weighted average rate was 5.52%.
Because bids at the cut-off rate exceeded what was left, they were only partly filled: 56.04% of the amount bid at 5.51% was allotted. Strong demand for borrowed cash, at a rate above the 5.49% seen in recent absorption auctions, shows cash in banks was short. The money is due back on 26 October.
What it means for you
No direct effect on your savings or loans. It shows banks needed extra cash, which is a signal watched by people who track short-term interest rates.
What it means for businesses
Banks that wanted more than they got must find cash elsewhere in the money market, which can keep short-term rates firm. Companies that borrow short term may see this in their funding costs.
Read the original
Press release on rbi.org.in ↗ Official PDF ↗
This explainer simplifies the official text. If anything here differs from the RBI's release, the release is right.