SBI launches personal savings accounts for children

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest bank, introduced on Friday personalised savings accounts for anyone below 18 years of age.

The PSU-lender introduced this product three months after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued guidelines allowing minors over 10 years to operate bank savings accounts independently and use facilities such as ATMs and cheque books.

"'Pehli Udaan' is a singly operated savings bank account for a minor aged 10 years and above and who can sign uniformly, while 'Pehla Kadam' is a savings bank account for minors of any age operated jointly with his/her parent or guardian," SBI said in a statement.

Specially branded passbook, cheque book have been designed for these products. All the account holders will be given an exclusively designed personalised photo ATM-cum-Debit card, it said.

Other features include internet banking with limited transaction facilities like bill payment, opening of fixed deposit, recurring deposits, etc. with per day transaction limit of Rs 5,000, it said.

Besides, such account holders can avail the benefits of mobile banking with limited transaction facilities like bill payment, top-ups with per day transaction limit of Rs 2,000.

Auto sweep with a minimum threshold of Rs 20,000 and in multiples of Rs 1,000 with a minimum of Rs 10,000, it said.

While launching these products SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya emphasised the importance of cultivating savings habits from childhood, managing and spending money wisely and also stressed upon the importance of inculcating good spending habits early in life.