The State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian multinational, public sector banking and financial services company. It is a government-owned corporation headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company is ranked 216th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations as of 2017. It is the largest bank in India with a 23% market share in assets, besides a share of one-fourth of the total loan and deposits market.
The bank descends from the Bank of Calcutta, founded in 1806, via the Imperial Bank of India, making it the oldest commercial bank in the Indian subcontinent. The Bank of Madras merged into the other two "presidency banks" in British India, the Bank of Calcutta and the Bank of Bombay, to form the Imperial Bank of India, which in turn became the State Bank of India in 1955.
The Government of India took control of the Imperial Bank of India in 1955, with Reserve Bank of India (India's central bank) taking a 60% stake, renaming it the State Bank of India. In 2008, the government took over the stake held by the Reserve Bank of India.
You must have heard banks imposing a penalty on customers for not maintaining a minimum balance in accounts. What about a penalty on banks if ATMs don't dispense cash? Don't be surprised if banks start paying you for failing to dispense cash from ATMs. A recent example of this is Rs 2,500 penalty compulsory on the State Bank of India, the country's largest commercial lender, by a consumer forum in Raipur after its ATM failed to dispense cash to a customer.
The debate overruled the SBI's influence that the accuser was not its customer and that the failure of internet connectivity did not come under its ambit.
The meeting overruled the SBI's influence that the complainant was not its customer and that the failure of internet connectivity did not come under its ambit. The bank, in its defense, had also said it was upon the internet service provider worried which should be held accountable, if at all.
The forum in its verdict said when the banks were charging for the ATM use a whole year in advance, a client was free to use any ATM and that he/she involuntarily became a customer.
The debate said that when ATM itself was showing "No Cash Available" punctual on three different dates, how it could be a case of internet failure? Moreover, when the customers are penalized for no balance or less than the minimum balance in accounts, how a bank could get away with no cash in an ATM, the forum asked.
The case pertains to an ATM breakdown incident in May 2017, following which a complaint was filed in June 2017.
Customers holding regular savings accounts with SBI are required to maintain a monthly average balance (MAB) to the tune of Rs 1,000-3,000, which varies depending on the location of the branch. Customers holding savings accounts in metro and urban branches are required to maintain an average balance of Rs 3,000 per month, while in semi-urban and rural branches, people need to maintain a monthly average balance of Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000, respectively.
Notably, SBI charges from Rs 5-15 plus GST (Goods and Services Tax) for failing to maintain the monthly average balance. The finance ministry data says that the SBI, which has close to 41 crore saving account holders, earned Rs 1,771.67 crore from its customers for the non-maintenance of minimum balance in the eight months of 2017-18.
