Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday (March 11) waved off maintenance of Average Monthly Balance (AMB) for all savings bank accounts to bring customer delight and hassle-free banking experience. The initiative will benefit all 44.51 crore SBI savings bank accounts, according to an SBI statement. 


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Currently, SBI Savings Bank customers’ needs to maintain AMB of Rs 3000, Rs 2000 and Rs 1000 in Metro, Semi-Urban and Rural areas respectively. Bank used to levy a penalty of Rs 5 to Rs 15 + taxes on non-maintenance of AMB.


Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, SBI announcing the waiver said, “This announcement will bring in more smiles and delight to our valuable customers. Waiving AMB is SBI’s yet another initiative to provide customers more convenience and elated banking experience. We believe this initiative would empower our customers towards banking with SBI and boost their confidence in SBI.”


The SBI has also waived of SMS charges. This move by the bank will bring significant relief to all the customers of the bank. The bank has also rationalised interest rate on SB Account to a flat 3 per cent p.a. for all buckets.


Keeping in mind the ‘Customers First’ approach, the country’s largest lender's latest decision will further boost its efforts to promote financial inclusion in the country. 


Notably, the SBI is the largest commercial bank in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers, and employees, besides being the largest mortgage lender in the country. 


As on December 31, 2019, the SBI has a deposit base of over Rs 31 lakh crore with CASA ratio of little more than 44 per cent and advances of nearly Rs 23 lakh crore. The PSU lender also commands 34 per cent market share home loans and 34.86 per cent in auto loans segment. 


The SBI also has the largest network of 21,959 branches in India with an ATM / CDM network of over 58,500.