There are around 30 crore customers of State Bank of India, making them the largest bank in India. This May, SBI upset a lot of their customers, when they not only increased the minimum balance requirement for saving accounts, but also increased the maintenance charges.
There were waves of protests, as Govt. of India had to intervene, and request SBI to reconsider their decision.
After barely 4 months, it has decided to roll back the changes, and make drastic improvements in their saving account rules, which is seen as a major consumer-friendly decision.
Will SBI win back their old, loyal customers from private banks now?
SBI: Minimum Balance Requirement Slashed
From now on, saving account holders in metros and urban locations would need just Rs 3000 as minimum balance per month, also called monthly average balance (MAB).
This was Rs 5000, since May, 2017.
In a Facebook note via their authorized Facebook Page, State Bank of India informed these changes (which is in itself a new, surprising change).
In the announcement, they informed that they will now treat both urban and metro locations as a single entity, and Rs 3000 would be the minimum balance requirement.
These changes would be made effective October 1st.
Hence, from now on, there would be only three types of saving accounts in the bank:
- Urban/Metro, whose minimum monthly balance will be Rs 3000
- Semi-Urban, whose minimum monthly balance will be Rs 2000
- Rural Centers, where Rs 1000 would be the minimum monthly balance
SBI has specifically stated that Jan Dhan accounts will have no changes, whatsoever.
Maintenance Charges Reduced Too
In the same announcement, SBI has also stated that Maintenance Charges, in case the minimum monthly balance is not maintained, have also been reduced.
These are the new Maintenance Charges:
- Urban/Metro locations: Rs 30 to Rs 50 (down from Rs 50 to Rs 100 currently)
- Semi-Urban locations: Rs 20 to Rs 40 (down from Rs 25 to Rs 75 currently)
- Rural locations: Rs 20 to Rs 40 (down from Rs 25 to Rs 75 currently)
Besides, it has expanded the list of beneficiaries, for whom there shall be no minimum balance requirement:
- Small Accounts
- Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts
- Financial Inclusion Accounts
- Pehela Kadam and Pheli Udaan accounts.
- Minors up to the age group of 18 (Primary Account Holder)
- Pensioners, all categories, including recipients of social welfare benefits
They added: “This (exemption) is in addition to the already exempted categories under PMJDY (Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojna) accounts and Basic Savings Bank Deposits Accounts (BSBD),”
Out of 42 crore saving accounts currently active with SBI, 13 crore saving accounts under PMJDY / BSBD were already exempted. As per SBI, the new rules effective October, 2017 will benefit around 5 crore saving account holders, pan-India.
If you are a SBI account holder, then do let us know whether this decision by SBI will be beneficial to you or not.