Over ₹72,000 crore lying unclaimed with banks; SBI alone accounts for nearly ₹19,528 crore

More than ₹72,450 crore is lying unclaimed with public, private and foreign banks and has been transferred to the RBI’s Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund, the government informed Parliament on Tuesday.

Of this, public sector banks account for ₹60,571.02 crore, private sector banks ₹9,607.76 crore and foreign banks ₹2,275.01 crore as on January 28, 2026, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha

State Bank of India alone holds unclaimed deposits worth ₹19,527.69 crore, followed by Canara Bank at ₹6,613.60 crore and Punjab National Bank at ₹7,269.07 crore, according to bank-wise data shared by the government.

Unclaimed deposits include balances in savings and current accounts that remain inoperative for 10 years, or term deposits not claimed within 10 years of maturity, which are subsequently transferred to the DEA Fund maintained by the Reserve Bank of India.

The government and RBI have launched several initiatives, including the ‘100 Days, 100 Pays’ campaign, under which banks reinstated ₹1,432.68 crore to claimants between June and September 2023.

A nationwide drive titled “Your Money, Your Right” was also conducted between October and December 2025 across 748 districts to help people trace and claim unclaimed assets.

The RBI has also launched the UDGAM centralised web portal to enable customers to search unclaimed deposits across banks, introduced incentive payouts of 5%-7.5% to banks for successfully settling claims, and mandated faster settlement of death claims within 15 days from March 31, 2026.

The Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025 now allows multiple nominations in bank accounts to help reduce future accumulation of unclaimed deposits, the minister said.

Replying to another question, Chaudhary said, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in consultation with the Government of India, has announced that loans sanctioned by banks to National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) with effect from January 19, 2026, for on-lending to cooperative societies are eligible for classification as priority sector lending under the respective categories.

These apply to banks other than Regional Rural Banks, Urban Cooperative Banks, Small Finance Banks and Local Area Banks.

These loans are for purposes and activities as laid down in the Master Direction on Priority Sector Lending, 2025, he said.