UDGAM: How to Find Unclaimed Bank Deposits, and How to Actually Claim Them

A bank account with no customer-initiated activity for ten years becomes an unclaimed deposit, and the balance is transferred to the Reserve Bank’s Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund. The money is not lost. It is waiting, and it is a great deal of money: ₹86,917 crore as at 30 June 2026, according to the Finance Ministry’s reply in Parliament.

Which banks hold the most

From the same figures, the public sector banks dominate:

• State Bank of India: ₹20,040 crore
• Punjab National Bank: ₹7,585 crore
• Canara Bank: ₹6,830 crore
• Bank of Baroda: ₹5,848 crore
• Union Bank of India: ₹5,549 crore

Among private banks: ICICI Bank ₹2,278 crore, HDFC Bank ₹1,912 crore and Axis Bank ₹1,734 crore.

What UDGAM is

UDGAM stands for Unclaimed Deposits – Gateway to Access inforMation. It is the RBI’s centralised search at udgam.rbi.org.in, and it does one job: it tells you which bank is holding an unclaimed deposit in a given name.

As at March 2024 it covered 30 banks, accounting for about 90% of the value in the DEA Fund. If your bank is outside that set, you approach the bank directly instead.

How to search

• Register: with your name and mobile number
• Enter the account holder’s name and the bank
• Add at least one identifier: PAN, voter ID, driving licence, passport number or date of birth

Try spelling variants. Old bank records are full of initials, expanded names, and maiden names, and the search matches what the bank recorded decades ago, not what you use today.

Claiming is done at the bank, not the RBI

UDGAM finds the deposit and points you to that bank’s process. You then go to the branch with identity documents, the account details and the bank’s claim form. The RBI does not pay claimants directly.

Ask the bank about interest as well: for interest-bearing accounts, amounts in the DEA Fund earn interest at a rate the RBI sets, so the payable amount may be more than the balance on the day the account went dormant.

If the depositor has died

The claim becomes a settlement in favour of the nominee or legal heirs, with the death certificate and the bank’s own requirements. Banks set their own thresholds for when they ask for a succession certificate or an indemnity, and they differ from the SEBI limits that apply to shares — so do not assume what worked for one asset will work for the other.

How this fits with shares

Families that find a dormant bank account usually find other things too: old share certificates, an insurance policy, a mutual fund folio. Search all of them at once through the unified unclaimed assets portal. We handle the share and IEPF side; the deposit you claim from the bank yourself.