Minimum Balance Rules: Here's How Much Top Banks Charge For Non-Compliance

Most of the banks in the country require customers to maintain a certain Monthly Average Balance or MAB in their savings bank accounts, failing which they have to bear certain penalty charges. Monthly Average Balance (MAB) is the sum of all the end of day (EOD) closing balance divided by the number of days in that month. Leading lenders such as State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have fixed their monthly average balance requirements according to the location of a customer's account and charge customers for non-maintenance of minimum average balance in their savings accounts.

(Also read: Transaction Charges On ATM-Cum-Debit Cards Levied By Top Banks)

Given below are the AMB requirements and penalty charges levied for non-maintenance of AMB by SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank:

State Bank of India (SBI)

Customers with a regular savings account in SBI branches located in metro and urban areas need to maintain a monthly average balance of Rs 3,000, according to the bank's website - sbi.co.in. Customers with accounts in semi-urban branches and rural branches are required to maintain an MAB of Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 respectively, noted SBI.

Customers failing to meet the MAB requirements have to bear the following penalty charges:

(As mentioned on SBI's official website)

HDFC Bank

Customers with a regular savings account in HDFC branches located in metro and urban areas need to maintain a monthly average balance of Rs 10,000, according to the bank's website - hdfcbank.com. Customers with accounts in semi-urban branches and rural branches are required to maintain an MAB of Rs 5,000 and Rs 2,500 respectively.

Customers failing to meet the MAB requirements have to bear the following penalty charges:

Kotak Mahindra Bank

Customers with a regular savings account in Kotak Bank branches located in metro and urban areas need to maintain a monthly average balance of Rs 10,000, according to the bank's website - kotak.com.

Customers failing to meet the MAB requirements have to bear the following penalty charges:

However, there are certain accounts where MAB rules are not applicable. These accounts are called as zero balance savings accounts.