SBI reduces minimum average balance requirement
Mumbai, January 06, 2018: State Bank of India (SBI) has 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 amount of average balance requirement in savings bank account has also been reduced substantially. Customers in the Metro & Urban centres will now have to maintain average Rs 1000/- during the quarter compared to Rs 3000/- average on a monthly basis. The requirement of QAB stands revised at Rs 500/- instead of Rs 2000/- in Semi Urban and Rs 1000/- 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.
Area | Existing Monthly Average Balance | Existing Charges (Per Month) | Revised Quarterly Average Balance | Revised Charges (Per Quarter) |
Metro | Rs 3,000/- | Rs 30/- to Rs 50/- plus GST | Rs 1,000/- | Rs 30/- to Rs 50/- plus GST |
Urban | Rs 3,000/- | Rs 1,000/- | ||
Semi-urban | Rs 2,000/- | Rs 20/- to Rs 40/- plus GST | Rs 500/- | Rs 20/- to Rs 40/- plus GST |
Rural | Rs 1,000/- | Rs 500/- |
The Bank has a very strong deposit franchise having 41 crores 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.
The Bank also clarified that customer always has the option of converting the regular savings bank account to BSBD account, free of charge, in case he desires to avail basic savings bank facilities without being subject to maintain MAB. The features of BSBD accounts are available in the bank’s website bank.sbi.