SBI has closed more than 41 lakh bank accounts. Is your account safe?

A Right to Information (RTI) plea has revealed that India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) closed as many as 41.16 accounts in the first 10 months of the current financial year as the owners failed to maintain the minimum required balance.

The RTI plea was filed by social activist Chandrashekhar Gaur, who hails from Madhya Pradesh. A letter from a senior official of the SBI furnished the information in a letter in response to his RTI plea. He received the letter on February 28, reported Prabhat Khabar.

This report comes on a day when the SBI reduced the minimum balance charges for non-maintenance of average minimum balance by up to 75 percent.

Charges for non-maintenance of average minimum balance in Metro and Urban centres have been reduced from maximum of Rs 50 per month plus GST to Rs 15 per month plus GST.

For Semi-Urban and Rural centres charges have been reduced from Rs 40 per month plus GST to Rs 12 and Rs 10 per month plus GST respectively.

The new rates on minimum balance charges will be effective from April 1, 2018.

SBI currently charges penalty from customers for non-maintenance of monthly average balance in savings accounts. The rates of monthly average balance is Rs 3,000 for metros, Rs 2,000 for semi-urban areas and Rs 1,000 for rural areas.

The SBI, after a gap of six years, had reintroduced the monthly average balance (MAB) charges from April 1, 2017.

SBI's plan to reduce the minimum balance requirement reportedly comes after the negative news on the income generated on the fees.

A finance ministry data, released in early January, showed that SBI netted a windfall of Rs 1,771.67 crore, more than its second quarter profit, from customers for non-maintenance of monthly average balance in savings accounts in eight months of 2017-18.

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