SBI, the country's biggest bank, announced five major decisions in a single day on 12th March, 2020. This will make a difference to crores of customers of the bank. According to the bank, it has taken these decisions keeping in view the interests of the customers. The bank announced a setback to savings account holders on Wednesday to reduce the interest rate to three percent. However, on the other hand, it also announced some relief for savings account holders.
Further, the bank also announced a reduction in MCLR based interest rates for various periods. With this, the bank also decided to cut the interest rate on Fixed Deposit. This will give relatively low returns to FD investors in the bank.
The details of the 5 announcements are as follows:
Minimum balance on savings account ends:
State Bank has announced the elimination of minimum balance on all savings accounts. This has given a lot of relief to the customers of the bank. At present, it is mandatory to maintain a minimum monthly balance of Rs. 3,000, Rs2000 and Rs. 1000 for SBI customers in the metro cities, semi-urban sector and rural sector customers respectively. The bank has been charging penalties from customers for not maintaining a minimum balance.
Low interest on Fixed Deposit:
The bank announced a reduction in the interest rate on popular Fixed Deposit
Reduction in interest rate on savings account:
The interest rate on all savings accounts has been reduced to 3% per annum. This will affect the bank's 44.51 crore account holders. Currently, the bank pays an interest of 3.25% on deposits up to Rs 1 lakh. At the same time, the bank pays interest at the rate of 3% on deposits of more than Rs. 1 lakh.
SMS fee terminated:
Sbi has also waived SMS charges keeping in view the 'Customer First' policy. This would also directly benefit the crores of customers of the bank.
Reduction on Interest rate:
The State Bank of India had earlier announced a reduction in the interest rate on MCLR-based loans by 0.15%. The decision to decrease the interest rate on all-term loans has come into effect from March 10, 2020. This has made the bank's Home Loan and other loans cheaper.
