May 30th 2024.
Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released their Annual Report, which revealed that unclaimed deposits with banks have increased by 26% in the past year, reaching a total of Rs 78,213 crore as of March 2024. This is a significant jump from the previous year's amount of Rs 62,225 crore in the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund.
The reason for this increase is that banks, including cooperative banks, are required to transfer any unclaimed deposits from account holders that have been inactive for 10 or more years to the RBI's Depositor Education and Awareness Fund. This is done to assist the account holders and to streamline the process of managing inoperative accounts.
In order to further streamline this process, the RBI recently issued comprehensive guidelines to banks on how to handle inoperative accounts and unclaimed deposits. These guidelines cover various aspects such as identifying and classifying accounts, preventing fraud, addressing customer complaints, and tracing the rightful owners or claimants of these accounts. The aim of these guidelines is to complement the efforts already being made by banks and the RBI to reduce the amount of unclaimed deposits in the banking system and return them to their rightful owners.
These guidelines, which came into effect on April 1, 2024, are applicable to all commercial and cooperative banks. In addition to this, the RBI has also developed a centralised web portal called UDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits Gateway to Access information) to make it easier for depositors to search for unclaimed deposits across multiple banks in one place.
This portal is expected to be a useful tool for depositors who may have lost track of their deposits or may not be aware of unclaimed deposits in their name. It will also help the RBI and banks in their efforts to return these deposits to their rightful owners. The RBI's continued efforts and initiatives in this area demonstrate their commitment to protecting the interests of depositors and ensuring transparency in the banking system.
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