The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has finally come up with a set of frequently asked questions or FAQs for the UDGAM portal launched in August 2023. The Unclaimed Deposits-Gateway to Access information (UDGAM) portal has onboarded 30 banks so far from seven initially.

The portal aims to simplify and ease the process of searching for unclaimed deposits under a single platform. Earlier, people had to contact the banks separately to look for unclaimed deposits. Now, they can easily search the records of the listed banks on the portal by entering the name of the bank branch, the accountholder’s name, etc.

As of March 2023, there were around Rs 42,270 crore in unclaimed deposits with the banks, up 28 per cent from Rs 32,934 crore in FY2022. Unclaimed deposits of more than 10 years with the banks are transferred to RBI’s Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund as per policy.

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As per the FAQs, individuals and entities can claim these deposits with the banks by registering on the UDGAM portal with their name and mobile number.

Here is the process to check the details on the portal. Click here.

Documents Required in The Search Process

After registering on the portal, the individual must provide the accountholder’s name, name of the bank or banks, and any of the following information: Permanent Account Number (PAN), driving license, voter ID and passport numbers, and the accountholder’s date of birth.

For an entity, like a proprietorship, a company, etc., they must provide the entity’s name, name of the bank or banks, and any of the following information: PAN, corporate identification number (CIN), date of incorporation, and the name/s of authorised signatories.

However, if these details are not available, one can use the accountholder’s address or the name of the entity to search the unclaimed deposits.

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Unclaimed deposits include, balance in the saving, current, fixed, or a recurring deposit account, a loan account after due appropriation, security deposit, margin money against letter of credit, demand draft or pay orders, inter-bank clearing adjustments, undrawn balances on any pre-paid card issued by the banks, excluding travellers cheque, rupee proceeds after converting foreign currency, and any other amount specified by the RBI.

Note the UDGAM portal is only for finding unclaimed deposits. To claim the fund, the customer must approach the respective bank. According to the FAQs, all 30 banks onboarded on the portal cover around 90 per cent of the unclaimed deposits.