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Informist, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025

--RBI Malhotra: To standardise norms for settlement of claims in bank accts 

MUMBAI – The Reserve Bank of India aims to standardise the procedure for settlement of claims for bank acount deposits and articles kept in safe custody or safe deposit lockers of deceased bank customers, Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in his statement at the outcome of the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee meeting. The move is expected "to make settlement more convenient and simpler", Malhotra said.

Balances in savings and current accounts that remain inoperative for 10 years, or term deposits not claimed within 10 years from the date of maturity, are classified as unclaimed deposits.

The RBI in a notification in January 2024 said, "The credit balance in any deposit account maintained with banks, which have not been operated upon for ten years or more, or any amount remaining unclaimed for ten years or more are required to be transferred by banks to Depositor Education and Awareness Fund maintained by the Reserve Bank of India." The fund is utilised for promotion of depositors' interest and for other purposes which may be necessary for promotion of depositors' interest.

Banks held INR 670 billion worth of unclaimed deposits as of Jun. 30, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to a qustion in the Lok Sabha at the end of July. Out of INR 670 billion, public sector banks held INR 583.30 billion unclaimed deposits while private banks had INR 86.74 billion, Chaudhary said. 

In a release in June, the central bank issued revised instructions for banks on settlement of unclaimed deposits with immediate effect. The measures included faciltities for updation of know-your-customer details for activation of inoperative accounts and unclaimed deposits at all branches. The RBI also instructed banks to provide for updation of KYC in such accounts and deposits through a video-customer identification process.  End

Reported by Cassandra Carvalho

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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