In an apparent relief to customers, the State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday did away with the provision of having to maintain an Average Monthly Balance (AMB) for savings accounts with customers at the bank. According to a statement by the SBI, this step will benefit all 44.51 crore savings accounts at the bank and will bring customers delightful and hassle-free banking experience.

Until now, customers needed to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 3000, Rs 2000 and Rs 1000 for savings bank accounts in metro, semi-urban and rural areas respectively. SBI used to levy penalties ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 15 plus taxes on non-maintenance of AMB.

The bank also said that all savings bank accounts irrespective of balance will earn an interest rate of 3% per annum.

While announcing the waiver, SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar 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. We believe this initiative would empower our customers towards banking with SBI and boost their confidence in SBI.”

The bank also waived off SMS charges. It is being said that this move by the bank will bring significant relief to all the customers of the bank. The bank has also rationalised interest rate on SB Account to a flat 3% p.a. for all brackets.

Notably, SBI is the largest commercial bank in the country in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers, and employees. It is also the largest mortgage lender in the country.

As of December 31, 2019, the SBI had a deposit base of over Rs 31 lakh crore with CASA ratio of little more than 44% and advances of nearly Rs 23 lakh crore. The PSU lender also commands 34% market share home loans and 34.86% in the auto loans segment.

The SBI also has the largest network of 21,959 branches in India with an ATM / CDM network of over 58,500.