HDFC Bank clarifies on AMB: No change in minimum balance rule for any account

After the ICICI Bank monthly average balance (MAB) controversy, HDFC Bank has issued a clarification saying that it has not changed its Average Monthly Balance (AMB) requirements for any of its account types.

“We would like to place on record that HDFC Bank offers multiple variants of Savings Accounts in line with the customers’ profiles. Each variant has different requirements for Average Monthly Balance based on the value-added services offered. There has been no change in the Average Monthly Balance (AMB) requirement for any account type,” the bank said in a release on Wednesday, August 13.

The AMB for HDFC Bank’s Regular Savings Account continues to be ₹10,000, and the AMB for the Savings Max Account remains at ₹25,000, the bank said in the release.

“All variants are available across rural, semi-urban, urban and metro branches, depending on customer profile. Given customer usage in metro areas, the Bank will prioritise offering the Savings Max Account to customers opening new accounts in metro branches,” it added.

ICICI Bank MAB hike

India’s second-largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, announced in the previous week that it has hiked its minimum average balance (MAB) requirement for new savings accounts to ₹50,000 for its metro and urban branches, ₹25,000 for semi-urban and ₹10,000 for rural branches. This invited sharp criticism from customers, resulting in ICICI Bank’s partial rollback of its revised charges.

Now, the bank has reduced the MAB for new accounts to ₹15,000 for metro and urban branches, ₹7,500 for semi-urban branches and ₹2,500 for rural branches.

This is a partial rollback, as even after the reduction, the revised prices are higher than earlier. Before the revision, the MAB requirement was ₹10,000 for urban branches and ₹5,000 for rural branches.

“We had introduced new MAB requirements for new savings accounts from August 1, 2025. Following valuable customer feedback, we have revised these to better reflect their expectations and preferences,” ICICI Bank said in a statement.

MAB, or AMB, is calculated on the basis of the simple average of day-end balances in a month. When an accountholder fails to maintain the AMB, penalties and charges are applicable.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has maintained that it is up to individual banks to decide their MAB limits and there is no regulatory cap or floor by the central bank.

“The RBI has left it to individual banks to decide on what minimum balance they want to set. Some banks have kept it at ₹10,000, some have kept ₹2,000, and some have exempted (customers). It is not in the regulatory domain (of the RBI),” said RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra on the sidelines of a ‘Financial Inclusion Saturation Drive’ event in Gujarat's Mehsana district, as per a PTI report.