SBI launches special FD scheme for senior citizens

State Bank of India (SBI) has launched a special fixed deposit (FD) scheme for senior citizens called ‘SBI Wecare Deposit’. This has been introduced in the retail term deposit segment to safeguard the interests of senior citizens in the current falling rate regime in the time of coronavirus pandemic.

SBI says under this new scheme, an additional 30 basis points (bps) premium will be payable for senior citizen’s retail term deposits with “5 Years & above” tenor only.

The ‘SBI Wecare Deposit’ scheme would be in effect upto 30 September 2020.

Thus, the effective rate of interest for retail term deposits of senior citizens will be:

• For FD with tenor ‘below 5 years’: 50 bps higher than the rate applicable for the general public.
• For FD with tenor ‘5 years & above’ (new product): 80 bps higher than the rate applicable for the general public (30 bps extra premium).
• This additional premium will not be payable in case of premature withdrawal of such deposits.

Currently, SBI offers interest rate between 4% to 6.20% on FDs maturing in 7 days to 10 years.

SBI has further lowered interest rates on FDs by 20 bps with effect from 12 May. Apart from this, SBI has also announced the reduction in its MCLR by 15 bps across all tenors. According to the release, "The one year MCLR comes down to 7.25 percent per annum from 7.40 percent annum p.a. with effect from 10 May 2020."