State Bank of India (SBI), country's largest bank, closed down 41.16 lakh savings bank accounts due to overlap of accounts after SBI's merger with its five associates last year and not because of failure to maintain minimum balance in the accounts.
On Wednesday, based on an Right to Information (RTI) query, a PTI report said that due to provisions of penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance, the bank has closed 41.16 lakh savings bank accounts between April 1, 2017 and January 31, 2018.”
However, in a statement, SBI has clarified that “these accounts have not been closed Suo-motu”.
On account of the merger of SBI’s associate banks with SBI in April 2017, where the customers were having multiple accounts with different Associate Banks and SBI, the number of accounts closed during the year is relatively high,” SBI said.
SBI has 41 crore Savings Bank Accounts, of which 25 crore are required to maintain a certain minimum balance amount.
Incidentally, from April 1, 2018, the service charges for non-maintenance of average monthly balance have been reduced by a steep 75 percent.
The government-owned bank had started charging depositors the penalty on April 1, 2017. It requires savings accounts to maintain a minimum average monthly balance of Rs 3,000 in metropolitan/urban areas, Rs 2,000 in semi-urban areas and Rs 1,000 in rural areas.
During the current financial year, 2.10 crore Savings Bank accounts have been opened, of which 1.10 crore accounts are PMJDY (Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojna) accounts which are exempt from average monthly balance requirement, SBI statement said.
SBI further said that customers who are unable to maintain average monthly balance have the option to get their Regular Savings Bank accounts converted to BSBD (basic savings bank deposit) accounts free of charge.
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