Bank of Baroda on Friday hiked its benchmark prime lending rate by 50 basis points to 12.50 per cent. The hike takes the bank’s BPLR from the existing 12 per cent to 12.50 per cent, the bank informed the BSE. The hike is with effect from Friday, the bank said. Earlier in the week, another lender, IDBI Bank, had hiked its BPLR by 0.50 per cent to 13.25 per cent. A clutch of banks have also upped their deposit rates in recent days while the country’s largest lender SBI’s chairman, Mr O. P. Bhatt, said there is an upward bias in deposit rates.