The latest announcement from ICICI Bank on increasing the minimum average monthly balance (MAB) requirement from the current MAB of ₹10,000 to ₹50,000 effective August 1, 2025, has raised an avalanche of debates.
Additionally, the bank has updated its cash transaction service fees. Customers will be permitted three free transactions per month for cash deposits at banks and cash recycling machines. After that, ₹150 will be charged for each transaction. There is a free monthly value cap of ₹1 lakh, beyond which there will be a fee of ₹3.5 per ₹1,000 or ₹150, whichever is greater. The maximum amount that third parties can deposit in cash is ₹25,000 per transaction.
Drastic Shift in Banking Norms
This policy change applies only to new customers opening savings accounts after the date mentioned above, and the existing customers are unaffected by it. The penalty 6.0 is set to be 6% of the shortfall or ₹500 whichever is lower. Other services along with cash transaction limits, service charges, and ATM usage fees have been tweaked to realign the bank’s service structure for the new urban and metropolitan clientele.
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Public Reaction: Concerns Over Accessibility
The announcement has been met with vociferous protests from various quarters. Critics maintain that the new MAB requirement could act as a barrier to lower-income individuals and families who find it difficult to maintain such a high balance. Some terms it elitist saying their focus is more on the rich while the other masses go into the background.
“This is sheer loot of citizens. Take note @RBI, don’t sleep over it. ICICI is going to earn interest for such a big sum at the cost of Public. Shame on @ICICIBank. I was keep in bank account for stock market transactions but now am going to shut down my bank account and will move to my other bank, where it’s nil,” one user wrote.
Strategic Intent or Oversight
ICICI’s decision fits into the larger picture of banks changing their service terms probably to control operational cost or to meet some customer engagement strategy. However, the steep increase in MAB raises doubts about how exclusive the policies can be and what it would do to ICICI reputation in the minds of its diverse customer set.
On one hand, ICICI bank’s revised MAB policy may help streamline its operations and attract the demographic it is targeting, but on the other hand, it would strictly alienate a significant chunk of its customer base. The institution should strike a careful balance between operational efficiency and financial inclusivity as a means of sustaining its reputation as a customer-centric organization.
After the first three transactions in a month, the bank will charge ₹23 for financial transactions and ₹8.5 for non-financial transactions at non-ICICI Bank ATMs in six major cities: Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, and New Delhi. The cap is applied to the sum of all transactions, whether financial and non-financial.
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