MUMBAI: In a move that will benefit 25 crore account holders, State Bank of India (SBI) has reduced charges for non-maintenance of Average Monthly Balance (AMB) in savings accounts by up to 70 per cent. The revised charges will be effective from April 01, 2018.

The charges for non-maintenance of AMB for customers in Metro and Urban centres have been reduced from a maximum of Rs 50 per month plus GST to Rs 15 per month plus GST. For Semi-Urban and Rural centres the charges have been reduced from Rs 40 per month plus GST to Rs 12 per month and Rs 10 per month plus GST respectively. ‎The bank had faced a lot of flak after it came to light that it earned more from minimum balance penalties than its profits (which were contained because of bad loan provisions). Also many students and underprivileged customers lost their balances because of wrongful classification of accounts as regular savings accounts.

‎"We have reduced these charges taking into account the feedback and sentiments of our customers. SBI also offers its customers options to shift from regular savings bank account to basic savings account on which no charges are levied.”

SBI has 41 crore savings bank accounts out of which 16 crore accounts are either under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana or are basic savings bank accounts. Both these accounts do not have minimum balance requirements. Besides pensioner/minors/social security benefit holders accounts were already exempted. In addition, students upto the age of 21 years are also exempted. The above revision in AMB will benefit 25 crore customers.

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

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