How will you search and claim unclaimed deposits/accounts across multiple banks?

The banks in India including cooperative banks are required to transfer the credit balance in any type of deposit which have not been operated upon for 10 years or more by the depositor or any amount that is remaining in the bank unclaimed for 10 years or more, to the Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund.

These unclaimed /inoperative accounts maintained in banks may be SB, RD, current account, CC accounts, the remaining balance after fully liquidating a loan account,  margin money against issue of Letter of Credit/Guarantee, etc., or any security deposit; outstanding telegraphic transfers, mail transfers, demand drafts, pay orders, bankers cheques, sundry deposit accounts, vostro accounts, inter-bank clearing adjustments, unadjusted National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) credit balances, and other such transitory accounts, unreconciled credit balances on account of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transactions, etc. It may also be undrawn balance amounts remaining in any prepaid card issued by banks but not amounts outstanding against travelers cheques or other similar instruments, which have no maturity period; rupee proceeds of foreign currency deposits held by banks after conversion of foreign currency to rupees by extant foreign exchange regulations; and such other amounts as may be specified by the Reserve Bank from time to time.

The customer/depositor or legal heirs (in the case of deceased depositors) can claim a refund of their unclaimed amounts from their banks. Based on the request of the claim the banks shall repay the customer/depositor along with interest (applicable only in case of Interest-Bearing deposit accounts) and then lodge a claim for a refund from the DEA Fund maintained by the RBI for an equivalent amount paid to the customer/depositor.

How will you search the unclaimed deposits/accounts across multiple banks?

The Unclaimed Deposits-Gateway to Access inforMation (UDGAM), which is an online portal developed by RBI facilitates the registered users* to search unclaimed deposits/accounts across multiple banks in one place in a centralised manner. Presently, 30 banks are part of the UDGAM portal and they cover 90% of unclaimed deposits in value.

* User manual available on the portal (https://udgam.rbi.org.in/unclaimed-deposits/#/login) to elucidate the detailed process of registration and use of the portal.

The individual user has to provide inputs such as the name of the account holder, the name of the bank (one or more banks can be selected), and any one or more of the five inputs viz., Permanent Account Number (PAN), Driving License Number, Voter ID Number, Passport Number and Date of Birth of the account holder. Non-individual category user has to provide inputs such as the name of the entity, name of the bank (one or more banks can be selected), and any one or more of the four inputs viz., Name of the authorized signatory, PAN, Corporate Identification Number (CIN) and Date of Incorporation.

Even if none of the above mentioned information is available, the user can type the address of the account holder or the entity (as the case may be), in place of these inputs mentioned above for undertaking the search.

Claim procedure if a bank is under liquidation:
In the case of a bank under liquidation, the depositor has to approach the Liquidator of the bank for the claim and the Liquidator would settle the claim. If the deposits of a customer/depositor were covered by DICGC insurance at the time of transfer to the DEA Fund, then the Liquidator can claim an amount equivalent to what could have been claimed from DICGC (i.e., currently up to ₹5 lakh including accrued interest, if applicable, in same right and capacity), and then make payment to the depositor. If the deposit amount is more than the insurance cover of DICGC, then the Liquidator shall claim the amount over DICGC insurance cover (i.e., over and above the ₹5 lakh) only on a reimbursement basis. (i.e., the Liquidator will pay such amount to the depositor subject to meeting all the applicable requirements and thereafter submit a claim to DEA Fund for reimbursement

What is Unclaimed Deposit Reference Number (UDRN)?

UDRN is a unique number generated through Core Banking Solution (CBS) by banks and assigned to each Unclaimed account/ deposit transferred to the Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund of RBI. This number is used so that the account holder or the bank branch where an account is maintained cannot be identified by any third party. The UDRN enables the bank branches to seamlessly settle claims received from the customers/depositors, who have made successful searches in the UDGAM portal. All the 30 banks on-boarded to the UDGAM portal have put in place requirements to generate UDRN during the development of the portal.

Source: RBI website

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