The Reserve Bank of India has launched a centralised web portal – UDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits – Gateway to Access inforMation) – which will enable bank customers to find their unclaimed bank deposits. In a statement, the RBI said this portal will make it easier for the public to search their unclaimed deposits across multiple banks in one place.
Currently, banks publish a list of unclaimed deposits on their websites. To improve and broaden depositors' access to such data, the RBI has created this UDGAM platform for the public to utilise in order to facilitate and make it easier for consumers to look for unclaimed deposits across numerous banks in one place.
With the web portal's debut, customers will be easily able to locate their unused deposits and accounts, at which point they can either make their deposit accounts active at their individual banks or collect the unused deposit amount. For now, customers will be able to view information about their unclaimed deposits from the seven banks now listed on the portal.
To begin with, users would be able to access the details of their unclaimed deposits from the seven banks presently available on the portal. The seven banks are State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Dhanlaxmi Bank Ltd, South Indian Bank Ltd, DBS Bank India Ltd and Citibank N.A. The search facility for remaining banks on the portal would be made available in a phased manner by October 15, 2023, said RBI.
The term "Unclaimed Deposits" refers to funds in savings or current accounts that have not been used for 10 years or in term deposits that have not been repaid within 10 years of the maturity date. According to the provisions of Depositor Education and Awareness Section, any money held in an Indian bank account that has not been used for ten years or more, or any deposit or money that has been unclaimed for more than ten years, must be credited to the fund within three months of the ten-year mark having passed.
Users have to first register on Udgam Portal with their mobile number, name and set-up password. After registering, log in to the portal and enter any 1 search criteria and select the bank. Selection of multiple bank accounts to search unclaimed deposits is also allowed. Once you enter these details, the portal will show your unclaimed deposits lying in any of the banks selected by you.
Once you log in to the portal, you will see two tabs - Individual and Non-Individual. In order to track unclaimed deposits, you are required to enter name of the account holder, Name of Banks, and either PAN, Voter ID, Driving License Number, Passport Numer or date of birth. Once all the details are entered, the unclaimed deposits will be displayed on the portal.
THe 'Unclaimed Deposits’ are transferred by banks to ‘Depositor Education and Awareness” (DEA) Fund maintained by RBI. Even as unclaimed deposits are transferred to DEA, bank depositors are entitled to claim such deposits along with interest from the bank where such deposits were held. “However, despite public awareness campaigns undertaken by banks as well as RBI from time to time, the amount of Unclaimed Deposit is showing an increasing trend,” RBI had said.
RBI has been taking various measures to ensure that newer deposits do not turn unclaimed and existing unclaimed deposits are returned to the rightful owners or beneficiaries after following due procedure. As per the government, the unclaimed deposits in public sector banks have increased by more than 70% between December 2020 and February 2023, and have more than doubled compared to December 2019.
According to RBI’s press release dated July 22, 2022, the growing volume of unclaimed deposits is mainly due to the non-closure of savings/current accounts which depositors do not intend to operate anymore or due to not submitting redemption claims with banks for matured fixed deposits. “There are also cases of accounts belonging to deceased depositors, where the nominees/ legal heirs do not come forward to make a claim on the banks concerned,” RBI had said.