KARACHI, Nov 29: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has allowed the low income group to open bank accounts with no minimum limit of deposits and without service charges.

SBP Governor Dr Ishrat Hussain in a meeting with media people on Tuesday announced that the SBP has asked all banks operating in Pakistan to introduce, with immediate effect, the Basic Banking Account (BBA) system.

Dr Hussain said that the BBA would facilitate low income people in the country, because the account could be opened with any bank by depositing only Rs1,000.

Earlier, there was no provision for the low income group to get any facility from banks while most of the banks had set Rs10,000 as a minimum deposit. A deposit of less than Rs10,000 allowed banks to deduct service charges up to Rs50 per month.

He also announced that student loan scheme for higher education has also been finalized which would help students who were unable to afford fee.

He said maximum limit under the scheme has been set as Rs300,000. The loans could be obtained for master and Phd degrees.

The SBP has issued a press release regarding the Basic Banking Accounts providing salient features of the scheme. Under the scheme, no fee for maintaining the BBA would be charged and would be non-remunerative account. No limit on minimum balance was required. In case, where balance in the BBA remained nil for a continued six-month period, such accounts would be closed.

Maximum two deposit transactions and two cheques withdrawal would be allowed which would be free of charge through cash/clearing per month.

Unlimited, free of charge, ATM withdrawals from the banks’ own ATMs. In case of withdrawal from BBA through the ATM machines of other banks, the respective or other bank may recover charge for such transactions.

For the existing banking accounts, banks could get the consent of all their customers whether they wished to maintain a BBA with them or a regular full service banking account with its accompanying terms and conditions. If a account holder did not give his or her consent for a BBA, his or her account would be treated as a regular full service banking account.

The features represent the minimum set of services which the banks would provide to their BBA customers, said the SBP release.

However, the banks were free to add more services, if they wished. The banks were also free to charge as per their existing policy, for any service or transaction over and above the minimum set of services of a BBA.