State Bank of India (SBI) has defended as rational its decision to levy a charge on those of its depositors who fail to maintain a stated average balance in their accounts. It says most savings accounts already have amounts above this threshold.

And, the move is aimed to partly cover the costs incurred on managing a customer account. “Among all banks, SBI has the lowest minimum balance requirement. All banks have this requirement for an account. We were the only one to withdraw it, in 2012,” SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya told reporters on the sidelines of an event ...