New Delhi, December 2 (IANS). Indian banks have returned unclaimed deposits worth more than Rs 10,000 crore to the people in the last three years. This information was given by the government in the Parliament.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said that from April 2022 to November 2025, banks (government and private) have identified the rightful owners of lakhs of inactive or lost accounts and have transferred the amount present in these accounts to them.
Under the Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund Scheme of the Reserve Bank of India, banks are required to transfer unclaimed deposits for 10 years from savings, current and fixed deposit accounts to a central fund managed by the RBI.
The Union Minister said that till June 30, 2025, public sector banks have transferred an amount of more than Rs 58,000 crore to this fund, in which State Bank of India (SBI) alone has a share of Rs 19,330 crore.
Rs 9,000 crore has been transferred to this fund by private banks. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank have the highest stake in this.
To ensure that these amounts reach the rightful beneficiaries, RBI has issued clear instructions to banks to trace account holders, publish the list of unclaimed accounts on their websites, maintain proper grievance redressal systems and proactively search for heirs of deceased customers.
The government had launched the ‘Your Capital, Your Rights’ campaign in October 2025 for unclaimed deposits.
Public sector banks have settled more than 22 lakh unclaimed accounts since 2022 and returned around Rs 8,460 crore to customers or their legal heirs.
SBI leads the list, which has settled more than 16 lakh unclaimed accounts and returned Rs 3,868 crore to customers or their legal heirs.
Central Bank of India has also returned over Rs 1,262 crore, while Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank have also settled huge amounts.
Private banks have also settled about 11 lakh accounts during this period and returned about Rs 900 crore.
–IANS
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