The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently launched a campaign for the return of unclaimed deposits in bank accounts to the rightful owner or claimants. The campaign called ‘100 days 100 pays’ will commence from June 1, 2023.
“The Reserve Bank of India 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 central bank said in a statement. Recently, the RBI also announced the setting up of a Centralised Web portal for public to search unclaimed deposits across multiple banks.
What are unclaimed deposits?
Balances in savings/current accounts which are not operated for 10 years, or term deposits not claimed within 10 years from date of maturity are classified as 'unclaimed deposits'. These amounts are transferred by banks to “Depositor Education and Awareness” (DEA) Fund maintained by the Reserve Bank of India.
The RBI urged the public to locate and contact the relevant bank for claiming these deposits. This measure, the RBI said, 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. At present, the depositors or beneficiaries of unclaimed bank deposits of 10 years or more have to go through the websites of multiple banks to locate such deposits.
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The Reserve Bank, through its public awareness initiatives, has been encouraging members of public to identify and approach the bank concerned for claiming such deposits. According to the government, the total of unclaimed deposits transferred to the RBI by the public sector banks as on February 2023 was Rs 35,012 crore.
