Display list of Unclaimed Deposits / Inoperative Accounts in Banks: RBI

RBI/2014–15/481
DCBR.BPD.(PCB/RCB).Cir.No.18/13.01.000/2014–15

Feb­ru­ary 27, 2015

Please refer to our Cir­cu­lar UBD.BPD.(PCB).Cir.No.9/13.01.000/2008–09 dat­ed Sep­tem­ber 1, 2008 and RPCD.CO.RF.BC.No.89/07.38.01/2008–09 dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 18, 2009, where­in detailed instruc­tions have been giv­en to banks on deal­ing with unclaimed deposits / inop­er­a­tive accounts. They have been advised to find the where­abouts of the cus­tomers and their legal heirs. These instruc­tions, inter alia, include i) annu­al review of accounts in which there are no oper­a­tions, ii) oper­a­tions in such accounts to be allowed after due dili­gence and iii) no charge to be levied for acti­va­tion of inop­er­a­tive account, etc.

2. Keep­ing in view pub­lic inter­est, it has been decid­ed that banks should, in addi­tion to the instruc­tions con­tained in the above men­tioned cir­cu­lars, play a more pro-active role in find­ing the where­abouts of the accoun­thold­ers of unclaimed deposits / inop­er­a­tive accounts. Banks hav­ing web­sites, are there­fore advised that they should dis­play the list of unclaimed deposits / inop­er­a­tive accounts which are inac­tive / inop­er­a­tive for ten years or more on their respec­tive web­sites. Those banks which do not have their web­sites should make avail­able the list in their respec­tive branch­es. The list so dis­played on the websites/ avail­able in the branch­es must con­tain only the names of the account holder(s) and his / her address in respect of unclaimed deposits / inop­er­a­tive accounts. In case such accounts are not in the name of indi­vid­u­als, the names of indi­vid­u­als autho­rized to oper­ate the accounts should also be indi­cat­ed. How­ev­er, the account num­ber, its type and the name of the branch (not applic­a­ble in case of unit banks) shall not be dis­closed on the bank’s web­site. The list so pub­lished by the banks on their web­sites should also pro­vide a “Find” option to enable the pub­lic to search the list of accounts by name of the account holder.

3. State Co-oper­a­tive Banks/ Cen­tral Co-oper­a­tive Banks have already been advised vide our cir­cu­lar RPCD.No.RRB.RCB.BC.58/03.05.033/2011–12 dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 8, 2012 to dis­play the list of unclaimed deposits/ inop­er­a­tive accounts which are inac­tive / inop­er­a­tive for ten years or more on their respec­tive web­sites. They were advised to com­plete the action by June 30, 2012 and keep their web­sites updat­ed at reg­u­lar intervals.

4. Banks may also refer to cir­cu­lar DBOD.No.DEAF Cell.BC.114/30.01.002/2013–14 dat­ed May 27, 2014 on the Depos­i­tor Edu­ca­tion and Aware­ness Fund Scheme, 2014 (Scheme) noti­fied by Gov­ern­ment of India. In terms of Para­graph 3(vi) of the Scheme, a bank shall cal­cu­late the cumu­la­tive bal­ances in all such accounts, as on the day pri­or to the effec­tive date and trans­fer the amount to the Depos­i­tor Edu­ca­tion and Aware­ness Fund (Fund) on the last work­ing day of sub­se­quent month along with the inter­est accrued. Sub­se­quent­ly, as men­tioned in para­graph 3(vii) of the Scheme, banks shall trans­fer to the Fund the amounts becom­ing due in each cal­en­dar month (i.e. pro­ceeds of the inop­er­a­tive accounts and bal­ances remain­ing unclaimed for ten years or more) as spec­i­fied in the Scheme and the inter­est accrued there­on on the last work­ing day of the sub­se­quent month.

5. Banks should also give on the same website/ dis­play in their branch, the infor­ma­tion about the process of claim­ing the unclaimed deposit/activating the inop­er­a­tive account and the nec­es­sary forms and doc­u­ments for claim­ing the same. Banks are required to have ade­quate oper­a­tional safe­guards to ensure that the claimants are genuine.

6. The list of unclaimed deposits / inop­er­a­tive accounts which are inac­tive / inop­er­a­tive for ten years or more should be updat­ed at least on a month­ly basis by:

1. adding the names and address of the account hold­ers whose deposits have been trans­ferred to the Depos­i­tor Edu­ca­tion and Aware­ness Fund (Fund) dur­ing the month/period.
2. delet­ing the names and address of account hold­ers whose claim were admit­ted by the banks dur­ing the month/period. Banks need not wait for refund from the Fund for delet­ing the names.

7. All UCBs and those StCBs/CCBs who have not yet com­plet­ed the action are advised to com­plete action as above by June 30, 2015.