Mumbai, April 21 -- India's top private banks have warned of margin pressures in the short term as they look to factor in repo rate cuts by the central bank into their deposit and loan products, and as competition on pricing of loans intensifies in the banking industry.

HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank, which released their Q4 earnings on Saturday, said in their post-earnings calls that the reduction on fixed deposit interest rates-the fastest growing segment for deposit accretion-is expected to play out over the next few quarters, thus keeping margins-primarily NIM or net interest margin-under pressure.

Sandeep Batra, executive director of ICICI Bank, said at the post-earnings call on Saturday that margins will get impacted by repo r...