What is the UDGAM portal and how do I search for unclaimed deposits?

UDGAM -- Unclaimed Deposits Gateway to Access inFormation -- is a centralised web portal the RBI launched on 17 August 2023 that lets you search for unclaimed deposits across multiple banks in one place, instead of checking each bank separately. You register, enter the account-holder's details, and the portal shows which participating banks hold matching unclaimed deposits, after which you approach that bank with the prescribed claim form and KYC documents to recover the money.

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Unclaimed deposits, the DEA Fund and the UDGAM portal — how dormant bank money is held and reclaimed

Q: What is an unclaimed deposit and what is the DEA Fund?

An unclaimed deposit is money in a bank account or deposit that has not been operated or claimed for 10 years -- a savings or current balance, a matured term deposit, or any credit balance. After 10 years the bank must transfer it to the Reserve Bank of India's Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund, maintained under Section 26A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and the DEA Fund Scheme, 2014. The RBI invests the corpus and uses the income to promote depositor awareness. The pool of such deposits has grown to roughly Rs 78,000 crore by March 2024 -- a figure that is rounded and approximate.

Q: Do I lose my money if my deposit becomes unclaimed?

No. Transfer to the DEA Fund does not extinguish your claim. The depositor or the legal heir can claim the money from the bank at any time, even after it has gone to the DEA Fund. The bank pays you and then claims a refund from the RBI's DEA Fund. On interest-bearing deposits, interest continues to accrue at a rate the RBI specifies until you claim. You do not deal with the RBI directly -- you approach the bank where the account was held.

Quick answerMoney in a bank account or deposit that is not operated or claimed for 10 years is an unclaimed deposit. The bank must transfer it to the RBI’s Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund (Section 26A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949; DEA Fund Scheme, 2014). That pool has grown to roughly Rs 78,000 crore by March 2024. Crucially, you never lose the right to the money — you reclaim it from the bank, which then recovers it from the RBI. Since 17 August 2023 the UDGAM portal lets you search unclaimed deposits across many banks in one place. Figures are official, rounded and approximate.

The chart shows the growth of unclaimed deposits transferred to the RBI’s DEA Fund. The table below carries the same figures so the page is readable without JavaScript — for accessibility and AI answer engines.

Unclaimed deposits in the RBI’s DEA Fund, by year-end March

Year	DEA Fund pool (approx.)	Note
Mar 2021	~Rs 24,000 cr	Pool of deposits inactive 10+ years and moved to the RBI's DEA Fund
Mar 2022	~Rs 33,000 cr	Steady rise as more long-dormant accounts cross the 10-year line
Mar 2023	~Rs 42,000 cr	RBI launches the 100-Days-100-Pays campaign to trace and settle dormant accounts
Mar 2024	~Rs 78,000 cr	Sharp jump, partly reflecting fuller reporting; UDGAM search portal now live

All figures are rounded and approximate, on an RBI Annual Report framing; the year-on-year jump partly reflects fuller and more complete reporting by banks. None of these figures is in the BankPulse Verified-numbers ledger pending reviewer sign-off. For exact figures see the source linked below.

How an unclaimed deposit moves — and how you get it back

Stage	What happens
Account goes dormant	A savings or current account with no customer-initiated transaction for 2 years is classified 'inoperative'/'dormant'. A term deposit not renewed or withdrawn also falls idle.
Ten years idle	If a deposit (or any credit balance) is not operated or claimed for 10 years, the bank must hand it over to the RBI's Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund.
Transferred to the DEA Fund	Banks transfer such balances monthly to the DEA Fund maintained by the RBI under Section 26A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The RBI invests the corpus and uses the income for depositor-awareness work.
The depositor can still claim	Crucially, the depositor (or legal heir) never loses the right to the money. They claim it from the bank as usual; the bank pays the depositor and then claims a refund from the DEA Fund, with interest where due on interest-bearing deposits.

The UDGAM portal — search in one placeUDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits — Gateway to Access inFormation), live since 17 August 2023, is the RBI’s centralised web portal to search for unclaimed deposits across multiple participating banks at once, instead of checking each bank one by one. You register, enter the account-holder’s details, and the portal shows which banks hold matching deposits — then you approach that bank with the claim form and KYC documents to recover the money. It is the single most useful tool for tracing a forgotten or inherited account.

Key dates & facts

When	What
1949	Banking Regulation Act, 1949 — later amended to add Section 26A empowering the RBI to operate a depositor-awareness fund
2014	The Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund Scheme, 2014 takes effect — banks begin transferring 10-year-unclaimed balances to the RBI
Jun 2023	RBI's '100 Days 100 Pays' campaign: banks to trace and settle the top 100 unclaimed deposits of every bank in every district within 100 days
17 Aug 2023	UDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits — Gateway to Access inFormation) goes live — a centralised RBI web portal to search unclaimed deposits across multiple banks in one place
2023-24	Participating banks expanded so a large majority of unclaimed-deposit balances are searchable on UDGAM

What it means for bankers

Unclaimed deposits are a conduct and operations issue as much as a number. The sharp rise in the DEA-Fund pool has pushed the RBI to make banks proactive: tag inoperative and dormant accounts, run periodic outreach to trace customers and legal heirs (the 100-Days-100-Pays campaign), and onboard onto UDGAM so customers can self-search. For a banker the practical points are that classifying an account inoperative after 2 years and transferring 10-year-unclaimed balances to the DEA Fund is mandatory, that a depositor’s right to reclaim is never extinguished (the bank pays and then recovers from the RBI), and that interest must keep accruing on interest-bearing unclaimed deposits at the RBI-specified rate. Treat reactivation and claim-settlement as a service obligation, not a chore — it is exactly the kind of consumer-protection conduct the RBI now supervises closely. Depositor balances here, like all bank deposits, also sit under the DICGC guarantee while the account is live.

More live dataRelated BankPulse pages: Deposit Insurance (DICGC) · SCB Aggregate Deposits · Financial Inclusion Index · DEAF in the glossary.

Unclaimed deposits FAQ

What is an unclaimed deposit and what is the DEA Fund?

An unclaimed deposit is money in a bank account or deposit not operated or claimed for 10 years. After 10 years the bank transfers it to the RBI's Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund, run under Section 26A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and the DEA Fund Scheme, 2014. The pool has grown to ~Rs 78,000 crore by March 2024 — rounded and approximate.

Do I lose my money if my deposit becomes unclaimed?

No. The depositor or legal heir never loses the right to the money. You claim it from the bank as usual; the bank pays you and then recovers it from the DEA Fund. Interest keeps accruing on interest-bearing deposits at the rate the RBI specifies. You deal with the bank, not the RBI directly.

What is the UDGAM portal and how do I search?

UDGAM (Unclaimed Deposits — Gateway to Access inFormation) is the RBI's centralised portal, live since 17 August 2023, to search unclaimed deposits across multiple banks at once. Register, enter the account-holder details, see which participating banks hold matching deposits, then approach that bank with the claim form and KYC to recover the money.

Methodology & sources: see how BankPulse dashboards are sourced, verified & updated · machine-readable unclaimed-deposits JSON feed.

Last reviewed 22 Jun 2026 by Vikram Jain

Source: RBI — Annual Report, the Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund Scheme, 2014 (Section 26A, Banking Regulation Act, 1949) and the UDGAM portal, rbi.org.in. The DEA-Fund pool figures are rounded and approximate, the year-on-year jump partly reflects fuller reporting, and none is in the BankPulse Verified-numbers ledger pending reviewer sign-off. We never reproduce source text verbatim. Reviewed by Vikram Jain. Last updated 22 Jun 2026, 00:11 IST.

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