₹50,000 minimum balance? ICICI bank’s new rule stuns customers

New Delhi: India’s second largest lender ICICI Bank has raised the monthly minimum average balance requirement for all customer segments, effective August 1.

Customers at metro and urban locations who opened their savings accounts on or after August 1 have to maintain ₹50,000 monthly average balance to avoid penalties, according to the latest notification on the bank's website.

The minimum average balance for older customers remains ₹10,000. New customers in semi-urban locations will be required to maintain a minimum average balance of ₹25,000 and rural customers will have to maintain ₹10,000.

The minimum average balance remains at ₹5,000 a month for old customers in rural and semi urban areas.

Customers who do not maintain the minimum average balance will be levied a penalty at 6 per cent of the shortfall or ₹500, whichever is lower.

Users took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent their frustration over the news. One user remarked, “Icici bank thinks we already reached 10 trillion economy. Some have to tell them it will be a few years from now”.

Another posted, “ICICI hikes min balance to ₹50K (urban) & ₹10K (rural), daylight robbery in the name of banking. Rural folks hit hardest, RBI sleeps on. Greedy bank, spineless regulator. Shame squared.”

A third user wryly commented, “ICICI bank pls share the process of closing bank account”. 

The bank now allows three complementary cash deposits free of cost into your savings account, after which you have to pay ₹150 per transaction.

The cumulative value limit is ₹1 lakh per month. In April 2025, ICICI Bank reduced the interest rate on its savings accounts by 0.25 per cent, and savings bank accounts with deposits up to ₹50 lakh will now earn 2.75 per cent interest.

The number of complementary cash withdrawal transactions per month also remains three.

The third-party cash deposit of ₹25,000 per transaction is applicable for all savings accounts.

The hike in minimum average balance by a large private lender is in contrast to other banks that have rationalised their penalties.

The country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), had scrapped the minimum balance rule in 2020.

The majority of other banks maintain significantly lower thresholds, typically between ₹2,000 and ₹10,000.

(with inputs from IANS)