The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched its centralised platform, Unclaimed balances – Gateway to Access inforMation or UDGAM, on August 17, promising help to those with unclaimed bank balances. People may trace all of their unclaimed deposits from various banks using the service.
At its monetary policy meeting on April 6, 2023, the RBI announced the introduction of this platform in an effort to alleviate the challenges people have when trying to locate lost bank funds.
Beginning with just seven institutions—State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Dhanlaxmi Bank, South Indian Bank, DBS Bank India, and Citibank—the portal will only offer information on unclaimed deposits with regard to those seven banks. According to a press statement from the RBI, the search function for the remaining banks would be made available gradually by October 15, 2023.
Given the scope of the unclaimed deposits, the RBI has been working to assist people in locating them. Public sector banks had deposited more than Rs 35,000 crore in unclaimed deposits to the RBI as of February 2023’s end. The Depositors’ Education and Awareness Fund (DEAF) of the RBI is where this money is kept, where it receives simple interest at the rates set by the DEAF.
“With only one portal, depositors will find it simpler to look for their unclaimed money now. According to Vikash Jain, co-founder of Share Samadhan Ltd., the website is incredibly user-friendly and simple to use.
What are unclaimed deposits?
“Unclaimed Deposits” are balances in savings or current accounts that have not been used for 10 years or term deposits that have not been repaid within 10 years of the maturity date. Banks transfer these funds to the Reserve Bank of India’s “Depositor Education and Awareness” (DEA) Fund.
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