Unclaimed bank deposits of `72,454 cr lying with DEA Fund: MoS Finance

New Delhi: Unclaimed bank deposits worth about Rs 72,454 crore, including those held by foreign lenders, have been transferred to the Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund maintained by the RBI as of January 28, 2026, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said deposits in savings or current accounts that remain inoperative for 10 years, or term deposits unclaimed for 10 years after maturity, are classified as unclaimed and transferred to the DEA Fund. Of the total amount, public sector banks accounted for Rs 60,571.02 crore, private banks Rs 9,607.76 crore and foreign banks Rs 2,275.01 crore.

To reduce the stock of unclaimed deposits and prevent fresh accretions, the government and RBI have taken several steps, including launching the UDGAM portal to enable customers to search unclaimed deposits across banks at a single platform. The Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025, has also introduced provisions for multiple nominations, allowing up to four successive or simultaneous nominees. Chaudhary said DEA funds are used to promote depositor awareness and financial literacy, support research and fund programmes on safe banking practices.

In response to another question, he said loans sanctioned by banks to the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) from January 19, 2026, for on-lending to cooperative societies are eligible for priority sector classification, excluding Regional Rural Banks, Urban Cooperative Banks, Small Finance Banks and Local Area Banks. He also said the total corpus of the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) stood at Rs 33,249 crore as of December 2025, with investments across 24 entities. Unsecured personal loans of scheduled commercial banks rose to Rs 9,53,181 crore as of March 31, 2025, though their share in retail advances declined to 25.2 per cent.