The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on April 6 announced a centralised web portal for the public to search unclaimed deposits.
What are unclaimed deposits?
- The total amount of unclaimed deposits transferred to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by public sector banks (PSBs) in respect of deposits no operated for 10 years or more was Rs 35,012 crore till February 2023 as against Rs 48,262 in March 2022.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) classifies a deposit as unclaimed when a customer doesn’t make any transaction in the account for 10 years or more. Unclaimed deposits include such funds in current and savings accounts, fixed deposits, and other deposits (like recurring deposit, pay orders, etc) with banks.
- All such money is transferred to RBI’s Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund every month.
- The money transferred to the fund by various banks is invested in instruments such as government securities by a committee set up by the RBI. The income thus earned is used for paying interest on the deposits as well as using it for investor awareness and education purposes.
- An account is considered dormant or inoperative if there has been no transaction (apart from interest credited or maintenance fees charged) for a period of two years.
- The bank is required to contact the customer via e-mail or phone about this. If the bank account remains inoperative, the bank is required to transfer the money to the DEAF account by the end of the subsequent month along with the interest accrued.
