RBI issues Draft Directions on BSBDA Accounts, Read New Guidelines for ZERO Balance Accounts

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued Draft Directions on Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA).

What is BSBDA?

The Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) Account is a free savings bank account which offers certain minimum facilities, free of charge.

RBI Draft Directions on BSBDA

Every bank shall offer a BSBD account, which shall be considered a normal banking service available to all. A bank shall offer the following basic minimum facilities in a BSBD account, free of charge, without any requirement of minimum balance to be maintained in such account.

1. Deposit of cash at bank branch as well as ATMs/ CDMs.
2. Receipt of money through any electronic channel or deposit/ collection of cheques.
3. No limit on number and value of deposits that can be made in a month.
4. ATM Card or ATM-cum-Debit Card. Further, no charges shall be levied towards annual fee, either at the time of issuance or renewal.
5. Cheque book with minimum 25 cheque leaves per year.
6. Internet and mobile banking facility.
7. Passbook or monthly statement of account in lieu of passbook, either in print or by email, as per request of the account holder. Further, issuance of a continuation passbook, on exhaustion of the pages in the previous passbook, shall not attract any charge.
8. Minimum of four free withdrawals including transfers and ATM transactions in a month. Digital payment transactions excluding ATM transactions, i.e. Point of Sale transfers, NEFT, RTGS, UPI, IMPS, etc., shall not be counted as withdrawals for this purpose. The charges on digital payment transactions shall be in accordance with guidelines issued by Department of Payment and Settlement Systems, Reserve Bank/ National Payments Corporation of India/ Government of India, as applicable.

The facilities of ATM/ ATM-cum-Debit card or internet/ mobile banking or cheque book shall be offered to a customer at the time of opening the BSBD account, provided the customer requests for the same. The bank shall not insist that a customer necessarily avails these facilities while opening and/ or operating the BSBD account.

A bank may provide additional services beyond the above minimum facilities in a BSBD account, with or without charges, in a non-discretionary and non-discriminatory manner with transparent disclosure to the customer. However, while doing so, the bank shall not require the customer to maintain a minimum balance in the BSBD account. The availment of such additional services shall be at the option of the customer.

Opening and operation of a BSBD account shall be subject to the instructions on KYC/ AML issued by the Reserve Bank vide ‘Master Direction – Know Your Customer (KYC) Direction, 2016’, as amended from time to time. Further, a bank, while opening a BSBD account, shall not impose any requirement of an initial minimum deposit.

The holder of a BSBD account shall not be eligible for opening another BSBD account in the same bank or any other bank. Accordingly, before opening a BSBD account, a bank shall take a declaration from the customer that he/ she does not have a BSBD account in any bank.

Further, the holder of a BSBD account shall not be eligible for opening any other savings bank deposit account in that bank, however, he/ she can open term deposit accounts. If a customer has any other existing savings bank deposit account in that bank, an undertaking shall be obtained from the customer that he/ she shall close the same within 30 days from the date of opening the BSBD account. However, in case the customer does not submit an account closure request within the prescribed period, the bank shall serve a notice to the customer and provide him/ her a period of another 30 days before closing the savings bank account(s) of the customer.

An existing customer can convert an existing savings bank deposit account to a BSBD account. A bank shall convert the existing savings bank account to BSBD account within seven days of receipt of request in writing from the customer for such conversion. Such an option shall also be provided to customers through internet banking/ mobile banking channels.