All You Need To Know About The Centralized Web Portal Launched By The RBI To Search For Unclaimed Deposits
On Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unveiled UDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits – Gateway to Access inforMation), a centralized online portal. Through a single platform, this site intends to make it easier for people to find their unclaimed deposits from different banks. The online service will help consumers locate and get in touch with their banks so they can either collect their unclaimed deposits or reactivate their deposit accounts, the central bank said in a statement.
The site was developed jointly by the partner banks, Indian Financial Technology & Allied Services (IFTAS), and Reserve Bank Information Technology Pvt Ltd (ReBIT). Users may already get data on their unclaimed deposits from seven banks using the site. The State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Dhanlaxmi Bank Ltd, South Indian Bank Ltd, DBS Bank India Ltd, and Citibank N A are among these financial institutions.
By October 15, 2023, the search option for more banks would be progressively added to the platform, according to the RBI.
The RBI mentioned the creation of a centralized online gateway in its statement on monetary policy, which was released on April 6. The central bank reaffirmed its commitment to protecting depositors’ interests and laid forth steps to both stop new deposits from being unclaimed and make sure that any already-unclaimed deposits are properly repaid to their lawful owners or beneficiaries.
The platform for retrieving unclaimed deposits will be active within three to four months, according to RBI Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao’s April statement.
Deposits that go unclaimed in a bank for ten years are transferred to the central bank’s Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) fund. According to recent statistics, public sector banks (PSBs) remitted to the RBI a total of Rs 35,012 crore in unclaimed deposits as of February 2023. The total number of unclaimed accounts was 102.4 million, and these deposits were related to accounts that had been dormant for at least ten years.
