The “Depositor Education and Awareness Fund Scheme, 2014”, was notified by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which covers norms related to unclaimed deposits and outlines details of utilisation of fund including, inter alia, promotion of depositors’ interests and other purposes as may be specified by the RBI. This was stated by Union Minister of State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

The Minister stated that as a result of various steps undertaken to return the unclaimed deposits to their rightful owners/claimants, total ₹5,729 crore has been transferred from “Depositor Education and Awareness” (DEA) Fund to banks towards refund of settling unclaimed deposits, in last five-years. The details of unclaimed deposits of public and private sector banks transferred to DEA Fund as on 31^st March of last five-years, are at Annex.

Giving more information, Dr Karad stated that RBI has taken various steps to reduce the quantum of unclaimed deposits and return such deposits to rightful claimants. Banks are, inter-alia, advised to –

1. display the list of unclaimed deposits which are inactive/inoperative for ten years or more on the bank’s websites;
2. find the whereabouts of the customers and their legal heirs to return unclaimed deposits to the rightful claimants;
3. formulate board approved policy on classification of unclaimed deposits; and
4. put in place a grievance redressal mechanism for quick resolution of complaints, record keeping, and periodic review of unclaimed deposit accounts.

Further, the Minister stated, RBI has announced to set-up a Centralised Web portal for public to search unclaimed deposits across multiple banks.

RBI has also launched campaign “100 Days 100 Pays” for banks to trace and settle top 100 unclaimed deposits of every bank in every district of the country within 100 days, commencing from 1.6.2023 to 8.9.2023, the Minister stated.

Depositor Education and Awareness Fund transfers support bank refunds of unclaimed deposits and centralised search for claimants. The Depositor Education and Awareness Fund Scheme, 2014 governs unclaimed deposits and allows RBI specified utilisation; substantial transfers from the DEA Fund have been made to banks to settle refunds. RBI directed banks to publish lists of long inactive accounts, trace customers and heirs, adopt board approved classification policies, maintain grievance redressal and record keeping, and carry out periodic reviews. RBI also announced a centralised web portal for searching unclaimed deposits across banks and launched a targeted campaign for tracing and settling top unclaimed deposits.