Minimum Balance Requirement: The Monthly Average You Need To Maintain In Your Account

Regular savings bank accounts, which do not permit the customer to keep a zero balance, require customers to maintain a certain minimum average balance (MAB) every month. Leading public sector banks State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB), and private sector peers HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank have fixed their monthly average balance requirements according to the location of a customer's account in urban, metro, semi-urban and rural areas, among other factors. Customers who fail to maintain the monthly average balance in their savings accounts have to pay a penalty to their bank, which varies according to factors such as branch location.

Here's a comparison of minimum balance requirements stipulated by SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank for their customers holding savings accounts:

SBI monthly average balance requirements
SBI customers who have accounts in metro and urban centres have to maintain a monthly average balance of Rs 3,000; customers with accounts in semi-urban areas are required to maintain an average monthly balance or AMB of Rs. 2,000, and those in rural centres need to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 1,000, according to the bank's website - sbi.co.in.

HDFC Bank monthly average balance requirements
HDFC Bank's savings accounts customers who have accounts in metro and urban areas need to maintain a monthly average balance of Rs 10,000. HDFC Bank's customers in semi-urban and rural branches need to maintain Rs 5,000 as average monthly balance, according to the bank's website - hdfcbank.com.

ICICI Bank monthly average balance requirements

ICICI Bank's customers of savings bank accounts in metro and urban locations need to maintain an average monthly balance of Rs 10,000, according to icicibank.com. ICICI Bank customers of semi-urban branches need to maintain Rs 5,000 as average monthly balance while those in rural locations need to maintain Rs 1,000 as monthly average balance, according to the bank's website - icicibank.com.

Punjab National Bank average monthly balance requirements
PNB savings accounts customers in metro, urban and semi-urban centres need to maintain a monthly average balance of Rs 2,000. For those in rural locations, PNB has put the average monthly balance requirement at Rs 1,000, according to the bank's website - pnbindia.in.