All you need to know about Unclaimed Deposits

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently announced a ‘100 Days 100 Pays’ campaign for banks to trace and settle the top 100 unclaimed deposits of every bank in every district of the country within 100 days. The banks will commence the campaign from June 1.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently announced a ‘100 Days 100 Pays’ campaign for banks to trace and settle the top 100 unclaimed deposits of every bank in every district of the country within 100 days. The banks will commence the campaign from June 1.

Rajat Dutta, Founder and Initiator, Inheritance Needs Services, which offers inheritance related services to individuals, explains the intricacies.

The process commences with initially the bank accounts getting categorised as inoperative. Savings and current accounts become inoperative or dormant if there are no transactions (either by the customer or any third party) in them for more than two years. Recurring and fixed deposits (FDs) turn inoperative if the deposit amount remains unclaimed even after two years of maturity unless they are on automatic renewal.

In case there is no transaction (other than interest credits and service charge debits) in the savings bank account for a continuous period of 10 years and in case of term deposits (FDs) if on maturity there is no renewal or withdrawal for a period of 10 years, from the date of last operation then the particular savings bank account / term deposits (FDs) are classified as Unclaimed deposits.

Once a savings, current or deposit account – becomes inoperative for 10 continuous years (i.e 2 years post being declared inoperative) then on completion of the 10th year all monies in that account is transferred to The Depositor Education and Awareness Fund (DEAF) maintained by the RBI. The unclaimed deposits earn simple interest at a rate declared by the RBI intermittently, provided and paid by the bank.

Bhagwat Karad, Union Minister of State for Finance, told Lok Sabha in a written reply that at the end of February, 2023, the total amount of unclaimed deposits transferred to RBI by Public Sector Banks in respect of deposits which have not been operated for 10 years or more, was ₹35,012 crore.

RBI has directed every bank to display the name and address of such depositors on their own website. It has also decided to develop a Centralised Web portal for the public to search unclaimed deposits across multiple banks.