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The account will remain active even if there is a transaction or not, SBI has appealed to the Reserve Bank for the benefit of customers

Navbharat Times | December 5, 2024 2:24 PM CST

SBI to RBI on Inoperative Accounts: The country's largest bank SBI has appealed to the Reserve Bank regarding inoperative bank accounts. RBI has said that if an account holder checks his account balance, it should be considered a transaction. In such a case, his account should not be made inoperative if there is no transaction.

Highlights

SBI has appealed to RBI regarding inactive accounts
SBI says that the account should not be considered inactive if there is no transaction
RBI has been told that balance check should also be considered as a transaction

New Delhi: State Bank of India (SBI) has written a letter to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) requesting to change the rules regarding dormant accounts. The bank says that not only monetary transactions but also non-financial transactions like balance checks should be considered to keep the account active.

Chairman of the country's largest public sector bank SBI, CS Setty, said that many times account holders, especially those who receive money from government schemes, do very few financial transactions. He said that after direct benefit transfer, the money comes into the account and then after withdrawal of money two-three times at the most, the account goes into dormant state and is declared an inactive account.

What did SBI say?

Sethi said non-financial transactions should also activate the account. He said the current rules focus on financial transactions in a certain period of time, resulting in many accounts being declared inactive.

He said that when a customer actually makes a non-financial transaction, it is an indication that he is aware of the bank account. Therefore, there is a case for tagging it as an active account. However, the exact number of inactive accounts in the country's largest bank is not available.

What is the matter?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to run special drives to reduce the number of inoperative or frozen accounts and find immediate solutions to them. After this, a letter has been written to RBI on behalf of SBI.

When does the account become inactive?

If there is no transaction from a bank account for two years, then the bank considers that account to be inactive. If there is money in the account, then interest on it continues to be received as before, but no transaction can be done. In such a situation, if you want to keep that account active again, then you have to go to the bank and get KYC done.

Do I have to pay any charge?

There is no need to pay any penalty or fee to reactivate a dormant account. Not only this, even if there is no minimum balance in the dormant account, banks cannot levy any kind of charge. These rules have come into effect from April 1 this year.