No longer banker to every Indian: SBI closes 41 lakh savings accounts

State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, closed nearly 41.16 lakh savings accounts between April-January in the current financial year ending March 31.

The lender claiming to be the banker to every Indian shut these accounts for not maintaining the average monthly balance, an RTI (Right to Information) query revealed.

"Due to provisions of penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance, the bank has closed 41.16 lakh savings bank accounts between April 1, 2017 and January 31, 2018," the bank replied to an RTI query filed by Chandra Shekhar Gaud from Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh.

SBI, the nation's top lender with a share of more than fifth of the banking assets, has 41 crore savings bank accounts.

About one-third of those accounts are under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and of pensioner, minors, social security benefit holders which are all exempted from the penalty for not maintaining the minimum balance.

Earlier this month, SBI reduced the penalty charges for non-maintenance of minimum balance in savings accounts by up to 75 percent effective from April 1.

The metro and urban customers, bank has reduced the penal charges for non-maintenance minimum balance Rs 15 a month and taxes from a maximum of Rs 50 earlier. For urban and metro customers average monthly balance required is of Rs 3,000 per month.

For semi-urban and rural account holders, the charges have been reduced from to Rs 12 and Rs 10 from Rs 40 earlier. The average monthly balance requirement for semi-urban area is Rs 2,000, while for rural centres is Rs 1,000.