Several national banks, such as the State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Baroda (BoB), and ICICI Bank, have announced changes in their banking system from 1 February 2022.
These banking rules pertain to cheque payments, money transactions, fees applicable to various services etc. Let's take a look at the changes made by each of these banks:
State Bank of India
From 1 February 2022, the SBI has increased the limit for free IMPS online transactions from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, in order to encourage customers to adopt digital banking.
Additionally, the bank also announced in its statement that it would not levy any service charge on IMPS transactions up to Rs 5 lakh.
Punjab National Bank
The Punjab National Bank has increased the penalty charge to Rs 250 on failure of payment of an EMI transaction or any other installment due to insufficient balance in an account.
While the previous penalty was fixed at Rs 100, customers will now have to pay Rs 250 on every default.
In addition to this, readers must note that the PNB has also increased the fees for a number of common banking services.
Bank of Baroda
The Bank of Baroda has introduced new rules with respect to its cheque clearance rule.
The BoB has announced that a verification would be mandatory for all cheque payments from 1 February. In case there is no confirmation, the cheque shall be returned.
In addition to this, the BoB has also urged customers to take advantage of the positive pay system for CTS clearing.
ICICI Bank
From 1 February 2022, the ICICI Bank is set to raise its fee on all its credit cards.
In fact, from 10 February onwards, customers will have to pay a transaction fee of Rs 2.50.
Additionally, the bank has mentioned that 2 percent of the total amount due will be charged on customers, in case of cheque or auto-debit returns.
Moreover, Rs 50 plus GST shall also be debited from the customer's savings account.
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