Amid the nationwide lockdown imposed for the next 21 days, banks will continue to provide essential services, even as they urge customers to avoid visiting branches and make transactions online.

The Finance Minister announced a slew of relief measures for bank customers yesterday amid the global crisis triggered by the Coronavirus pandemic. These relief measures will remain in place at least for the next three months, and maybe extended if the situation does not improve, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

Charges on withdrawal of cash from own or other bank ATMs have been completely waived off for all debit cardholders for the next three months. Banks have also been asked to waive off any minimum balance requirement, and not impose any fee for non-compliance for the same over the next three months.

Bank charges have also been reduced on digital trade transactions for all trade finance consumers till June 30, 2020.

During the press conference yesterday, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur also indicated that more relief measures may be coming for borrowers impacted by the Coronavirus crisis, but nothing has been firmed up yet and would be communicated once the government takes a call on the matter.

Here is what banks have announced so far.

DCB Bank has announced a commitment of INR 1 crore as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for intervention and measures to manage the outbreak of COVID-19 in India. The fund will be deployed within the next 3 months

State Bank of India has announced to commit 0.25% of its annual profit (FY 2019-20) to fight the COVID-19 outbreak situation in India. The fund used to fight COVID-19 pandemic will be spent from CSR funds.

Axis Bank has set aside Rs. 100 crore to support customers, employees, vendors, government agencies and the community at large towards curbing the spread of coronavirus.

Axis Bank reaches out to over 2.6 crore customers in the country. With a view to supporting customers and the entire nation, Axis Bank has decided to waive off charges for Savings Account, Current Account and Prepaid Card customers (wherever applicable) towards Online IMPS and ATM financial and non-financial transactions, for the period 23rd Mar – 31st Mar’20 (both days inclusive).

Apart from this, several public banks have also announced emergency credit lines for borrowers that may have been facing liquidity issues following the coronavirus related lockdown.

First Published:Mar 25, 2020 1:34 PM IST