Over ₹67,000 crore in unclaimed deposits lying with banks: Govt tells Parliament

More than ₹67,000 crore in unclaimed deposits are currently lying with public and private sector banks, the government informed Parliament on Monday.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said that as of June 30, 2025, public sector banks (PSBs) had transferred a total of ₹58,330.26 crore and private sector banks ₹8,673.72 crore to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund.

The State Bank of India (SBI) alone accounts for ₹19,329.92 crore, the highest among PSBs, followed by Punjab National Bank with ₹6,910.67 crore and Canara Bank with ₹6,278.14 crore.

Among private banks, ICICI Bank leads with ₹2,063.45 crore in unclaimed deposits, followed by HDFC Bank at ₹1,609.56 crore and Axis Bank at ₹1,360.16 crore.

Under the DEA Fund Scheme, 2014, unclaimed balances in savings and current accounts that remain inoperative for ten years, and term deposits unclaimed for ten years after maturity, are transferred to the fund maintained by the RBI.

Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), however, are not mandated to transfer such unclaimed deposits to the DEA fund.

To address the issue of unclaimed deposits, banks have been advised to display lists of such inoperative accounts on their websites and actively trace customers or legal heirs. They are also required to implement a grievance redressal mechanism and maintain board-approved policies for the classification and review of unclaimed accounts.

The Reserve Bank of India launched the UDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits – Gateway to Access Information) portal to help the public locate unclaimed deposits across multiple banks. As of July 1, 2025, over 8.59 lakh users had registered and accessed the portal, the minister said.

On the question of utilisation of unclaimed funds, the minister said that the amount transferred to the DEA Fund is administered by a committee set up under the RBI.

The fund is to be used for promoting depositor interests and for purposes as specified by the central bank under the scheme.