As per the proposal, the banking sector deposits which have not been claimed for 10 years or more will be transfered to 'Depositor Education and Awareness Fund Scheme'.
A savings or current account with no customer-induced transaction for more than 24 months is classified as inoperative.
Given that a sizeable part of this money is part of the coveted current accounts and savings accounts, it is surprising that banks are not in a hurry to revive these accounts, notes Tamal Bandyopdhyay.
The Reserve Bank on Monday said it has imposed penalties of about Rs 1 crore each on Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank for deficiencies in regulatory compliance. Besides, the RBI has also imposed penalties on four co-operative banks. A penalty of Rs 1.05 crore has been imposed on Kotak Mahindra Bank for contravention of certain norms related to 'The Depositor Education and Awareness Fund Scheme, 2014' and for non-compliance with the directions on 'Customer Protection - Limiting Liability of Customers in Unauthorised Electronic Banking Transactions', and 'Loans and Advances - Statutory and Other Restrictions', the banking regulator said.
The size of Reserve Bank's balance sheet increased by 11.08 per cent to Rs 70.47 lakh crore as on March 2024, leading to the highest-ever dividend payout to the government, according to the central bank's annual report. In actual terms, the increase was Rs 7,02,946.97 crore over Rs 63.45 lakh crore as on March 2023.
Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said a centralised portal would be ready in three to four months wherein depositors and beneficiaries can access details of unclaimed deposits across various banks. As of February this year, about Rs 35,000 crore of unclaimed deposits were transferred to RBI by public sector banks in respect of deposits which were not operated for 10 years or more. "In order to improve and widen the access of depositors/beneficiaries to such data, RBI has decided to develop a web portal to enable search across multiple banks for possible unclaimed deposits based on user inputs," RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said while announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current financial year.
Better protection for depositors and investors was one of the chief considerations in Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introducing, on Friday, the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, in the Lok Sabha to amend four pieces of legislation. This amendment is also to improve audit quality in public-sector banks (PSBs), offer consistency in reporting by banks to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and provide for an increase in the tenure of directors in cooperative banks.
As much as Rs 26,697 crore was lying in dormant accounts of banks, including cooperative banks, as on December 31, 2020, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. This money is lying in nearly 9 crore accounts which have not been operated for 10 years. As per information received from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as on December 31, 2020, the total number of such accounts in Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) was 8,13,34,849 and the amount of deposits in such accounts was Rs 24,356 crore, Sitharaman said in a reply.
With the widespread use of new technologies, inter-connectedness and dependency, newer risks, threats and vulnerabilities have emerged.
In a bid to help people who have unclaimed deposits lying with banks, the Reserve Bank of India on Monday directed banks to prominently display such account holders' names on the websites and provide them with a "Find" option to locate the information easily.
Bad loans in public sector banks more than tripled.
"You can download mobile applications provided by banks on your phones and I want to urge political leaders, teachers, youth to give training to people on mobile banking," Modi said.
The Reserve Bank of India has told banks not to levy penal charges for non-maintenance of minimum balances in any inoperative account.
The best possible move would be for the government to spend the funds on activities like infrastructure development or as it deems fit, says Soumya Kanti Ghosh.
'In most schemes, where the monthly investment is a fixed amount, investors run the risk of the price of gold rising during the tenure of the recurring deposit,' notes Harsh Roongta.
Chirag Mehta, senior fund manager -- alternative investments at Quantum AMC, shares his views.
As all regulators are part of it, individuals don't need to worry about approaching the right authority
