Prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi on Sunday informed that nearly ₹1.04 lakh crore remains unclaimed across banks, insurance companies, mutual fund houses and dividend accounts, asserting that the government is working to return these funds to their rightful owners as part of a wider effort to strengthen public trust. He was speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2025 in New Delhi.
Speaking about the long-standing perception that “once something was given to the government, it was a one-way traffic with nothing coming back,” the PM says the ongoing nationwide drive to trace beneficiaries shows how renewed trust between citizens and the state can deliver tangible results.
According to him, around ₹78,000 crore lies unclaimed in bank accounts, ₹14,000 crore with insurance companies, ₹3,000 crore with mutual fund companies and another ₹9,000 crore in unpaid dividends. “This money belongs to poor and middle-class families,” he says, adding that the government has taken up the responsibility of ensuring it reaches them.
Mr Modi says special outreach camps have been organised across about 500 districts to help citizens verify and claim their dues. “Thousands of crores have already been returned to rightful beneficiaries,” he says, framing the campaign not merely as a financial exercise but as a reflection of transparency and accountability in governance.
He stressed that such initiatives are driven by the belief that people’s trust is the nation’s 'true capital'. “This is not merely about the return of assets but about trust, about the commitment to continuously earn the trust of the people,” he noted.
Last week, the government told Rajya Sabha that Indian banks have returned ₹10,297 crore to rightful owners or depositors in forgotten or inactive deposits over the past three years. The refunds span public and private sector banks and cover more than 3.3mn (million) dormant accounts settled between April 2022 and November 2025.
Pankaj Chaudhary, the minister of state for finance says the results were part of an intensified national effort to trace account-holders or their legal heirs and restore old, unclaimed balances earlier transferred to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s depositor education and awareness (DEA) Fund. Under RBI rules, balances in savings, current and term deposit accounts that remain untouched for 10 years must be transferred to the DEA Fund, from which customers can later claim their dues.
Public sector banks (PSBs) have led the recovery effort, settling over 2.2mn accounts and returning around ₹8,460 crore to customers or their heirs. State Bank of India (SBI) alone accounted for ₹3,868 crore repaid across more than 1.6mn accounts, making it the single largest contributor. Private banks settled nearly 1.1mn accounts, returning close to ₹900 crore during the same period.
The Rajya Sabha reply also showed the scale of unclaimed deposits still lying with the banking system. As of 30 June 2025, PSBs had already transferred over ₹58,000 crore to the DEA Fund, led by SBI with ₹19,330 crore and Canara Bank with ₹6,278 crore. Private banks contributed an additional ₹9,000 crore, with ICICI Bank ₹2,063 crore) and HDFC Bank (₹1,610 crore), transferring the highest amounts among private lenders.
With the DEA Fund now holding tens of thousands of crores of rupees in unclaimed deposits and refunds crossing ₹10,000 crore since 2022, the government says the combined push from UDGAM, banks and the national campaign is expected to accelerate the return of more funds in the coming months.
Last month, M Nagaraju, secretary of department of financial services (DFS) under Union ministry of finance (MoF) said that the ministry is collaborating with RBI to create a comprehensive digital platform that will consolidate all types of dormant financial holdings, including bank deposits, insurance claims, mutual fund investments, shares and dividend payments. (
Read: Moneylife Impact: Government To Launch Unified Portal for Unclaimed Financial Assets)
The new consolidated platform will serve as a one-stop solution coordinated by RBI, bringing together information from all financial sector regulators into a single searchable interface, he says.
Recent statistics reveal that about ₹1.08 lakh crore in unclaimed funds are sitting idle across banks, mutual funds, insurance providers and unpaid dividend accounts. The fragmented nature of existing systems—where customers must navigate different platforms depending on whether their assets fall under banking, insurance, or securities regulations—often discourages people from pursuing their rightful claims.
This litigation and years of sustained advocacy pushed RBI to launch the UDGAM (unclaimed deposits-gateway to access information) portal. Through its report,
Challenges in Transmission of Assets to Nominees and Legal Heirs, Moneylife Foundation has consistently highlighted how banks routinely flout RBI’s own rules by failing to publish lists of unclaimed accounts, demanding excessive documentation and delaying even legitimate claims. These obstacles disproportionately affect senior citizens and legal heirs, leaving families struggling to recover funds that are rightfully theirs.
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