The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Friday, said banks will commence a ‘100 Days 100 Pays’ campaign, where they will trace and settle the top 100 unclaimed deposits of every bank in every district within 100 days.
The banks will commence the campaign for return of unclaimed deposits from June 1. According to the information available with the RBI, as of the end of February, the total amount of unclaimed deposits transferred to the RBI by Public Sector Banks in respect of deposits that have not been operated for 10 years or more was ₹35,012 crore.
The RBI said the ‘100 Days 100 Pays’ campaign will complement its ongoing efforts and initiatives to reduce the quantum of unclaimed deposits in the banking system and return such deposits to their rightful owners/claimants.
The central bank, last month, had announced that a Web portal would be put in place to enable search across multiple banks for possible unclaimed deposits based on user inputs. The search results will be enhanced by use of certain AI tools. This move is aimed at improving and widening the access of depositors / beneficiaries to such data.
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 the Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) fund maintained by the Reserve Bank of India. Banks display the list of unclaimed deposits on their website. =