Unclaimed Deposits: “Unclaimed Deposits” are balances in savings/current accounts that have not been used for 10 years or term deposits that have not been repaid within 10 years of the maturity date.

Public sector banks transferred approximately ₹35,000 crores in unclaimed deposits to the Reserve Bank as of February 2023 in relation to deposits that have not been used for at least ten years. As of the end of February 2023, the 10.24 crore accounts that had been transferred to the RBI included these unclaimed deposits. Banks transfer these unclaimed funds to the Reserve Bank of India’s “Depositor Education and Awareness” (DEA) Fund.

State Bank of India (SBI) leads the chart with ₹8,086 crore in Unclaimed Deposits;

Punjab National Bank has ₹5,340 crore in Unclaimed Deposits;

Canara Bank has ₹4,558 crore Unclaimed Deposits; and

Bank of Baroda has unclaimed Deposits of ₹3,904 crore.

The Reserve Bank of India announced a ‘100 Days 100 Pays’ campaign for banks to locate and pay the top 100 unclaimed deposits of every bank in every district of the country within 100 days. The Reserve Bank of India announced on Friday the launch of a special 100-day campaign. The campaign will start for the banks on June 1, 2023. The Reserve Bank’s ongoing efforts to lessen the number of unclaimed deposits in the banking system and return such deposits to their rightful owners/claimants will be supplemented by this measure.

The Reserve Bank occasionally encourages members of the public to identify and contact the bank in question for claiming such deposits through its public awareness initiatives. The RBI recently announced the creation of a centralized web portal that will allow the public to search for unclaimed deposits across various banks. Banks transfer unclaimed deposits to the “Depositor Education and Awareness” (DEA) Fund, which is managed by the central bank.

This week’s meeting of the powerful Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), chaired by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, also covered issues pertaining to unclaimed deposits. The need for starting a campaign to assist people in obtaining their unclaimed deposits in banks and other financial institutions was emphasized by Nirmala Sitharaman.