Unclaimed Deposits Update: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked banks and other financial institutions to ensure that their customers must declare the name of their nominee or successor. According to the annual report of the Reserve Bank (RBI), till the financial year 2021-22, unclaimed deposits in banks have reached Rs 48,262 crore. At the same time, the value of unclaimed amount in all the financial institutions has crossed one lakh crore rupees.
Get the name and address of the nominee from the customer
RBI launches Udgam Portal
In order to enable common people to trace unclaimed deposits, the Reserve Bank of India has launched a centralized web portal named Udgam (UDGAM), by visiting which any person can trace unclaimed deposits in banks. Through this web portal, common people will be helped to find out the unclaimed deposits deposited in banks by themselves or their near and dear ones, even if the amount is deposited in more than one bank.
The government has also been continuously asking the financial regulators to run special campaigns regarding unclaimed deposits, shares, dividends, mutual funds and insurance policies. The government wants these financial institutions to find the nominees and give them the benefits of these unclaimed financial instruments. Where the nominee does not have this information, a campaign should be launched to make this information available to him within the time limit.
These states have the highest number of unclaimed deposits
According to RBI, maximum unclaimed deposits are deposited in banks of Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. According to insurance regulator IRDAI, a total of Rs 22,043 crore is deposited in life insurance companies as of March 31, 2021, for which there is no claimant.
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