ICICI Bank has increased the minimum average balance required in savings accounts starting August 1, 2025. Customers in metro and urban areas now need to keep Rs 50,000, up from Rs 10,000.
In semi-urban areas, the minimum balance has gone up to Rs 25,000 from Rs 5,000, and in rural areas, it is now Rs 10,000 instead of Rs 2,500.
Many customers, especially in rural and semi-urban areas, may find it difficult to maintain this higher balance. If they don’t, the bank will charge a penalty of either 6% of the shortfall or Rs 500, whichever is lower.
Pensioners are exempt from these charges. Families in the bank’s Family Banking program must maintain a combined balance of 1.5 times the requirement; otherwise, members who fall short will be charged individually.
The bank will also charge fees for bounced ECS or NACH payments, returned cheques, and declined ATM or card transactions due to insufficient funds. Because of these changes, some customers may switch to banks with lower balance requirements or basic accounts, while others will need to manage their finances carefully to avoid penalties.
Social media users slam decision
Several social media users have slammed the decision questioning why would anyone want to keep money in their accounts instead of investing it.
One user on X said, ” The Worst Decision of ICICI Bank #ICICIBank raises average minimum balance for savings a/c in metros & urban areas to Rs 50,000 Earlier it was Rs 10,000 Why the hell people put their money in accounts. Urban youth wants to invest those money not to sit dead in Bank Accounts.”
ICICI Bank’s gameplan in increasing the MAB to ₹50000 is to weed out the small customers who are not adding value. This will enable it to focus on the affluent customers & cross-sell them products like insurance & brokerage. If the move succeeds, HDFC, Kotak etc will follow suit pic.x.com/RrMzEFVOra
— RJ Stocks (@RakJhun) August 9, 2025
Another user said, “ICICI Bank’s gameplan in increasing the MAB to ₹50000 is to weed out the small customers who are not adding value. This will enable it to focus on the affluent customers & cross-sell them products like insurance & brokerage. If the move succeeds, HDFC, Kotak etc will follow suit.”
Goodbye masses, hello classes.
Interesting move by ICICI Bank, hiking avg minimum balance in a savings a/c from ₹10,000 to ₹50,000.
Reminds me of a similar move by Citibank a decade ago, when their “Suvidha” a/c balance requirement shot up from 5K, 10K, 25K to ₹2 lakh/mth. pic.x.com/Bpd7kTq6Cn
— Atul Karmarkar (@atulkarmarkar) August 9, 2025
“Goodbye masses, hello classes. Interesting move by ICICI Bank, hiking avg minimum balance in a savings a/c from ₹10,000 to ₹50,000. Reminds me of a similar move by Citibank a decade ago, when their “Suvidha” a/c balance requirement shot up from 5K, 10K, 25K to ₹2 lakh/mth,” said a third user on X.