India’s largest public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) has recently clarified that the fall in the number of its accounts is caused due to its merger with its associate banks and it is not linked with the maintenance of minimum balance.
“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,” said the bank in its official communiqué.
The bank said that that the customers had the option of converting their Savings Bank accounts to BSBD accounts free of charge, in case of hassles in maintaining the minimum balance.
It added that it even reduced the service charge for non-maintenance of minimum balance by 75 per cent (Effective April 1, 2018).This decision received a lot of appreciation from the customers, said the bank.
On March 13, SBI substantially reduced the charges for non-maintenance of average monthly balance (AMB) in savings accounts. This move is said to be benefitting 25 crore bank customers.
Denying the media reports pertaining to the closure of bank accounts due to the introduction of AMB, the bank said the accounts were not closed due to the suo-moto.
