The Punjab National Bank (PNB) has reduced the interest on savings accounts, further limiting the earnings on the money deposited by the users.
According to the new slabs announced by the bank, those with balance upto ₹10 lakh will earn an interest of 2.75 per cent. A report in Livemint said that other deposit slabs too have received an interest cut.
The account holders having a balance between ₹10 lakh and ₹500 crore will get 2.80 per cent interest, the Livemint report further said. Those with a balance of more than ₹500 crore will earn 3.25 per cent interest, the report further said.
PNB had last cut the interest on savings accounts in December and was offering 2.80% on accounts having less than ₹10 lakh and 2.85% on savings accounts having more than RS 10 lakh to and below ₹500 crore.
This is continuing with the trends in the last few years, which has seen a steady decline following various steps taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to push liquidity into the financial system.
The financial savings of the households in India comprises of currency, bank deposits, debt securities, mutual funds, pension funds, insurance and investments in small savings schemes. It is, however, heavily skewed in favour of bank deposits.
According to RBI data, total bank deposits stood at ₹154.43 lakh crore till March 31. In 2020, this figure was ₹142.6 lakh crore. The RBI report was released in September last year.
Meanwhile, PNB’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer SS Mallikarjuna Rao said that the bank posted a 123 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit at ₹1,127 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year, largely due to lower provisions.
The government-owned bank’s total income during the quarter was ₹22,026 crore as against ₹23,042 crore recorded during the same quarter of the previous year.