SBI does away with minimum balance requirement in savings accounts

The State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday announced it will not ask customers to maintain a minimum balance in savings accounts, news agency PTI reported.
 

The state-owned bank rationalised interest rate on savings bank accounts to a flat 3 per cent annum. It also waived off SMS charges.
 

“This announcement will bring in more smiles and delight to our valuable customers. We believe this initiative would empower our customers towards banking with SBI and boost their confidence in SBI," said chairman Rajnish Kumar in a statement.
 

SBI, earlier in the day, slashed its Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) by 10-15 basis points across all tenors from March 10, 2020, moving to make make home and auto loans cheaper.
 

SBI, India's largest bank, has more than 24,000 branches and over 400 million customers. SBI customers till now had to maintain an average monthly balance of Rs 3,000, Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 in metro, semi urban and rural areas, PTI said.
 

The bank used to levy a penalty of Rs 5 to Rs 15 plus taxes for not maintaining the minimum balance.