Good news for SBI customers: Bank waives Average Monthly Balance on all savings accounts

India’s largest lender the State Bank of India (SBI) has waived off the Average Monthly Balance (AMB) for all Savings Bank Accounts, the company said in a media release. This means that the customers do not need to maintain a minimum balance in their bank accounts. The state-run bank took this "major initiative to bring customer delight and hassle-free banking experience," the release said.

This initiative will further boost the efforts to promote Financial Inclusion in the country, the release said. The charges on maintaining AMB are now waived off on all 44.51 crore SBI savings bank accounts, the release said.

Currently, SBI Savings Bank customers need to maintain AMB of Rs 3000, Rs 2000 and Rs 1000 in Metro, Semi-Urban and Rural areas respectively. Bank used to levy a penalty of Rs 5 to Rs 15 with taxes on non-maintenance of AMB.

Keeping in mind the ‘Customers First’ approach, the bank has also waived of SMS charges, the release said. This move by the bank will bring significant relief to all the customers of the bank, the release claims. The bank has also rationalised interest rate on SB Account to a flat 3 % per annum for all buckets, the release further said.

“This announcement will bring in more smiles and delight to our valuable customers. Waiving AMB is SBI’s yet another initiative to provide customers more convenience and elated banking experience," SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said while announcing the move.  

"We believe this initiative would empower our customers towards banking with SBI and boost their confidence in SBI,” the release said quoting the chairman.

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Earlier in the day, the lender had cut down fixed deposit interest rates for the second time in one month. The new SBI FD rates will be effective from 10th March 2020. The SBI fixed deposit interest rate (below Rs 2 crore) effective from 10th March 2020 says that SBI FD for the period of 7  days to 45 days will now fetch 4 per cent interest rate instead of 4.5 per cent. The SBI has left fixed deposit interest rates unchanged for the period of 46 days to 179 days, 180 days to 210 days and 211 days to less than 1 year at 5 per cent, 5.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively.