RBI’s new drive: Banks asked to ‘find and return’ money as unclaimed deposits surge past ₹67,000 crore

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to step up efforts to return unclaimed deposits, including dividends, interest warrants and insurance proceeds, Business Standard reported on Tuesday.

A special three-month drive from October to December has been planned, focusing on rural and semi-urban areas.

Unclaimed deposits are balances in savings or current accounts not operated for 10 years, or term deposits unclaimed for 10 years after maturity. Such funds are transferred by banks to the Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund maintained by the RBI. Depositors or their heirs, however, retain the right to claim their money along with applicable interest from the original bank at any time.

Despite periodic awareness campaigns, unclaimed deposits have continued to rise due to dormant accounts, unredeemed fixed deposits and cases where nominees of deceased depositors have not come forward.

Banks already display lists of unclaimed deposits on their websites with limited identifiable details to help customers or their heirs trace funds.

RBI has now asked banks to run campaigns in local languages through print and electronic media to widen outreach, according to Business Standard report.

State Level Bank Committees (SLBCs) will review unclaimed deposit data by age profile and concentration to enable more localised follow-ups.

State Bank of India tops the list among PSBs with ₹19,329.92 crore in unclaimed deposits, followed by Punjab National Bank (₹6,910.67 crore) and Canara Bank (₹6,278.14 crore). Among private lenders, ICICI Bank leads with ₹2,063.45 crore, trailed by HDFC Bank (₹1,609.56 crore) and Axis Bank (₹1,360.16 crore).

To help claimants, RBI has launched the UDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits – Gateway to Access Information) portal, which has recorded over 8.59 lakh user registrations as of July 1, 2025.