State Bank of India has taken two major decisions on Wednesday to its 44.51 crore savings account holders. SBI bank has removed the requirement of average monthly balance (AMB) and SMS Charges on all types of savings bank accounts. The press release issued by the bank said that this step has been taken to provide hassle free banking service to the bank’s customers and to promote financial inclusion in the country. 44.51 crore customers will benefit from this decision of SBI.The bank has said that keeping in mind the ‘customer first’ approach they waived these charges.
Currently, minimum balance maintenance of Rs 3,000, 2,000 and 1,000 is required in metro, semi urban and rural areas respectively. State Bank of India used to charge penalty from customers for not maintaining the monthly balance.
The SBI bank announced no charges from customers for SMS service
Now its customers will not have to pay the fee for SMS service on quarterly basis. It has also been abolished.
SBI in its second decision has reduced the interest rate on savings accounts. Till now savings account holders used to get annual interest at the rate of 3.25 per cent according to the amount deposited in the account. But after the new decision this rate has been reduced to flat i.e. 3% uniformly. Along with this, cuts in fixed deposits (fixed deposits or FDs) and marginal cost based interest rates (MCLR) of the fund have also been announced.
SBI is India’s largest commercial bank in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers and employees. It is also the largest mortgage lending bank. As on 31 December 2019, the bank has a deposit of Rs 31 lakh crore in 21,959 branches.