SBI may announce minimum balance criteria again

The State Bank of India (SBI) might announce the charges and the minimum balance requirement criteria again soon. A person privy to the development said the matter was still under consideration.

The bank in an earlier statement said it had revised the requirement of maintaining monthly average balance (MAB) and the charges for non-maintenance of MAB in savings accounts. 

The customer can now maintain quarterly average balance (QAB) instead of monthly average balance, the statement isssued earlier said.

"The amount of average balance requirement in savings account has also been reduced substantially. Customers in the metro and urban centres will now have to maintain average Rs 1,000 during the quarter compared to Rs 3,000 average on a monthly basis. The requirement of QAB stands revised at Rs 500 instead of Rs 2,000 in Semi Urban and Rs 1,000 in rural areas.  The charges will be levied on a quarterly basis.  For instance, the charges for non-maintenance of QAB in metro centre will now stand reduced upto Rs 50 per quarter instead of Rs 50 per month. The revised MAB requirement and charges will become applicable from the quarter beginning January 2018," the earlier statement said. 
 
"The Bank has a very strong deposit franchise having 41 crore savings bank accounts out of which 16 crore accounts under PMJDY / BSBD and of pensioner,minors,social security benefit holders were already exempted. The above revision in MAB will benefit 25 cr customers," according to the statement.

"The bank also clarified that customer always has the option of converting the regular savings bank account to  Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) account, free of charge, in case he desires to avail basic savings bank facilities without being subject to maintain MAB."