RBI Launches Campaign To Resolve Top Unclaimed Deposits In Banks

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday launched a campaign titled ‘100 Days 100 Pays’ to track down and settle within 100 days the top 100 unclaimed deposits lying in every bank in every district of the country.

This initiative by RBI will aid the central bank’s ongoing efforts and schemes to reduce the amount of unclaimed deposits lying idle in the banking system and enable their rightful owners to claim such deposits.

If there has been no activity on a deposit for ten years or longer, it is considered to be unclaimed. These amounts are transferred by the concerned banks to the RBI’s “Depositor Education and Awareness” (DEA) Fund. The depositors can still claim such deposits from the bank(s) where such deposits were held, at a later date, along with any applicable interest.

RBI said that the volume of unclaimed deposits are growing mainly due to the non-closure of savings and current accounts that depositors have no intention to operate anymore or from failure to submit redemption claims with banks for fixed deposits which are matured. In some instances, they arise from money belonging to depositors who are deceased and where their nominees or legal heirs do not make a claim on the bank concerned.

Till February 2023, the total amount of unclaimed deposits transferred by public sector banks (PSBs) to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was Rs 35,012 crore, minister of state for finance Bhagwat Karad said through a written reply in Parliament.

Presently, the State Bank of India (SBI) tops the unclaimed deposits chart with such funds worth Rs 8,086 crore, followed by Punjab National Bank with Rs 5,340 crore, Canara Bank with Rs 4,558 crore and Bank of Baroda with an amount of Rs 3,904 crore.

How to claim deposits: The details of all unclaimed accounts are required to be shown by every bank on its website with some identifiable details. Customers can check the details on the website and visit the bank branch to claim the money, with a claim form and receipts of the deposits and know your customers (KYC) documents.

In addition to the campaign, the setting up of a centralised web portal was also announced by the central bank, for the public to search unclaimed deposits across multiple banks. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools will be used to enhance the search results and to improve the access of depositors or beneficiaries to such data, the RBI has said.

At present, the websites of multiple banks have to be browsed by the bank customers to claim these deposits. With the help of this new web portal, bank customers will be able to find their unclaimed deposits at a single point.

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