Here's a little fine print lying in ICICI Bank's home loan agreements, on fixed interest rate: "In the event the BORROWER opts for the fixed rate of interest offered by ICICI Bank, ICICI Bank shall have the right at any time or from time to time to review and reschedule the repayment terms of the LOAN or of the outstanding amount thereof in such a manner and to such extent as ICICI Bank may in its sole discretion decide."

Other lenders, including ABN AMRO Bank, IDBI Bank and LIC Housing Finance, have similar clauses (See table). In HDFC's case, such a clause existed in its 2006 fixed rate agreements, but "has since been withdrawn since then", a senior HDFC official said.

Home loan borrowers would be the worst hit after Reserve Bank of India raised key lending rates by 0.5 percentage points to battle inflation that crossed 11 per cent last week.

Experts said while the initial response of banks is to raise interest rates of the floating rate borrowers, there is enough scope to raise rates even for fixed regime customers, although these are done in extreme situations. "Banks might take some harsh steps," said K. Raghuraman, executive director, Punjab National Bank (PNB).