Imagine you had some money in a bank account which you have not operated for over two years. What will happen to that account? It would become inoperative, and recovering your funds would perhaps be a Herculean task, or at least it would appear so.
However, there are ways to gain access to your funds. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is organising outreach programmes to help you recover your funds from inoperative accounts. The banking regulator will conduct special camps on unclaimed assets in all districts across the country from October to December 2025.
Notably, money which is inoperative (inactive for more than two years and up to 10 years) in your bank is typically transferred to the RBI’s DEA (Depositor Education and Awareness) Fund. The customer or their legal heirs can claim it anytime, even after it is transferred to the DEA Fund.
What is RBI’s DEA Fund?
The Depositor Education and Awareness Fund (DEA Fund) was formulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 24 May 2014.
The amounts credited to the DEA Fund are the credit balances in any deposit account maintained with banks (which could be commercial banks or co-operative banks), which have not been operated upon for 10 years or more by the depositor, or any amount remaining unclaimed for 10 years or longer.
The banks are required to transfer the entire amount, including the accrued interest, as on the date of transfer to the DEA Fund.
These are the easy steps to claim your money:
I. Visit any bank branch, even if it’s not your regular branch.
II. Submit a form with KYC documents (Aadhaar, passport, voter ID and driving licence)
III. Then verification is carried out.
IV. You will receive your money with interest after verification is complete.
Additionally, you can visit special camps on unclaimed assets being conducted in all districts across the country from October to December 2025.
To find your unclaimed deposits, you can search your bank’s website or check the RBI’s UDGAM portal, which currently covers 30 banks.
For all personal finance updates, visit here
