Public sector banks will suggest technical and strategic measures to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to accelerate the return of unclaimed deposits. These steps are being taken to control the rapid increase in unclaimed deposits. As of March 2024, the Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund had unclaimed deposits of ₹78,213 crore, up 26% over the previous fiscal.

This is the plan

All banks, including cooperative banks, whose accounts have not seen any transaction for 10 years or more, are obliged to transfer those deposits to this fund. A detailed study is being done by the banks in this regard, in which unclaimed deposits will be analyzed and measures will be suggested to reduce the deposits.

What does the report say?

According to officials, this plan of the banks will be submitted to RBI within six months. The study will focus on using technology-based solutions and digital tools to establish better engagement with depositors and streamline the claims process. In this direction, banks will also identify areas and states where unclaimed deposits are high and strategies will be prepared locally for this.

This permission has been granted.

Moving forward on this issue, in August 2023, through the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill 2024, the government allowed increasing the number of nominees in each bank account from one to four, which will help reduce the number of unclaimed deposits. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had appealed to financial regulators to run special drives for settlement of unclaimed deposits and claims across all financial sectors. She urged institutions to encourage customers to nominate their heirs, which will reduce the problem of unclaimed money in the future.

RBI has also launched the UDGAM portal in this direction, which helps people to find information about their unclaimed deposits. In 2023, RBI also launched the “100 days 100 payments” campaign for banks, under which banks were given the target of settling the top 100 unclaimed deposits within 100 days.