The State Bank of India has reduced interest rate on all savings bank (SB) accounts to a flat 3 percent, a move that will affect 44.51 crore account holders. As of now, the interest rate offered on SBI saving accounts is 3.25 percent for deposits up to Rs 1 lakh, and 3 percent for deposits above Rs1 lakh.
“Bank has rationalised interest rate on savings bank Account to a flat 3 percent pa for all buckets,” SBI said.
Today, the bank also waived the minimum requirement for maintaining balance in savings bank accounts.
The lender further said that it has waived SMS charges, which will bring significant relief to all the customer, keeping the ‘Customers First’ approach in mind.
“The charges on maintaining average monthly balance are now waived off on all 44.51 crore SBI savings bank accounts,” it said.
Currently, the SBI customers are required to maintain average monthly balance of Rs 3,000, Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 in metro, semi-urban and rural areas, respectively.
Earlier, the bank used to levy a penalty of Rs 5 to Rs 15 plus taxes on non-maintenance of AMB.
SBI today also slashed its fixed deposit rates for certain tenors and marginal cost of funds-based lending rates (MCLR) across various tenors.
This is the second reduction in a month, the public sector bank has reduced retail term deposits (less than Rs 2 crore) by 10 to 50 basis points for a few tenors.
Besides, the one-year marginal cost of fund-based lending rate (MCLR) of SBI has been deducted by 10 basis points to 7.75 percent from 7.85 percent earlier, a move which will make home and auto loans cheaper. This is 10th consecutive cut in MCLR by the bank in the current fiscal.
Overnight and one-month MCLRs have been slashed by 15 basis points to 7.45 percent each. Three-month MCLR has been revised to 7.50 percent from 7.65 percent.
SBI has also reduced its one-year MCLR by 10 basis points to 7.75 percent, from 7.85 percent earlier. This is 10th consecutive cut in MCLR by the bank in the current fiscal.
The new two-year and three-year MCLRs is reduced by 10 basis points to 7.95 percent and 8.05 percent, respectively.
The rates became effective from March 10.
