SBI extends deadline for special deposit scheme for senior citizens till 2022

The State Bank of India (SBI) special fixed deposit scheme for senior citizens has been extended again. The bank has extended the last date of investing in the scheme to March 31, 2022.

In 2020, the SBI launched a special fixed deposit (FD) scheme for senior citizens called SBI 'WECARE' Senior Citizens' Term Deposit scheme. The scheme was made available for investment from May 12, 2020.

In May 2020, the country's top lender had announced SBI 'WECARE' Senior Citizens' Term Deposit scheme for senior citizens, which was initially till September 2020. But amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the special FD scheme has been extended several times.

"A special SBI Wecare Deposit for Senior Citizens introduced in the Retail TD segment wherein an additional premium of 30 bps (over & above the existing 50 bps as detailed in the above table) will be paid to Senior Citizen’s on their retail TD for '5 Years and above' tenor only," it had said.

According to the bank, the scheme has been launched to provide a higher interest rate to senior citizens in the current falling interest rate scenario as this category of investors are usually dependent on interest income. The launch of this scheme comes in the wake of several banks cutting interest rates on fixed deposits and savings bank accounts due to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cutting repo rate and reverse repo rate.

As per the details of the scheme available on the website, the scheme will fetch 0.8 per cent above the interest rate applicable to the general public. For instance, with effect from January 08, 2021, the interest rate on a five years fixed deposit for the general public is 5.40 per cent. If a senior citizen puts a fixed deposit under the special FD scheme, then the interest rate applicable to the FD will be 6.20 per cent.

Only resident senior citizens aged 60 years and above are eligible to invest in this scheme. The scheme is a domestic term deposit; therefore NRI senior citizens are not eligible to invest in the scheme.

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