The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on May 12 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.
"This measure will complement the ongoing efforts and initiatives by the Reserve Bank to reduce the quantum of unclaimed deposits in the banking system and return such deposits to their rightful owners/claimants," said RBI.
An unclaimed deposit is one which does not see any activity like the infusion of funds, withdrawal, etc. from the depositor for 10 years or more, and is deemed as an inactive deposit.
Earlier, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, who surprised everyone by holding interest rates, on April 6 also announced a centralised web portal for the public to search unclaimed deposits.
"At present, the depositors and beneficiaries of unclaimed bank deposits of 10 years or more have to go through the website of multiple banks to locate such deposits. Now, in order to improve and widen the access of depositors or beneficiaries to information on such unclaimed deposits it has been decided to develop a web portal.
This will help depositors or beneficiaries to get their deposits back, " Das said while sharing the outcome of the first monetary policy committee meeting of the financial years 2023-24.
Recently, unclaimed deposits with banks fell to Rs 35,012 crore from Rs 48,262 crore a year ago, data made available by the government shows.
The total amount of unclaimed deposits transferred to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by public sector banks (PSBs) in respect of deposits not operated for 10 years or more was Rs 35,012 crore till February 2023 as against Rs 48,262 in March 2022, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply to the Parliament.
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