Unclaimed deposits at financial institutions: Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister, has urged all financial authorities to launch a specific campaign to address the growing problem of unclaimed deposits, shares, dividends, mutual funds, and insurance policies. The objective of the government is to identify the nominees and award them the advantages of these unclaimed financial assets. It was resolved during the Financial Stability and Development Council meeting that a campaign would be started to notify nominees of information that is available about them but that they are ignorant of within a given timeframe.
According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual report, unclaimed deposits in banks increased to a startling Rs. 48,262 crore as of the 2021–22 fiscal year, from Rs. 39,264 crore in the preceding year. The biggest amounts of unclaimed deposits are held by banks in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, according to the RBI.
With a total of Rs. 22,043 crore placed in life insurance firms through March 31, 2021, with no claimant, this issue has also harmed insurance businesses. As of the same day, non-life insurance businesses had deposits totaling Rs. 1,241.81 crore that had no claimants. The largest insurance provider in the nation, LIC, alone has unclaimed deposits totaling Rs. 21,538.93 crore and interest of Rs. 2911.08 crore.
According to information obtained from SEBI, mutual funds had deposits of Rs. 1590 crore that had not been claimed as of March 31, 2021. This comprises unclaimed dividends of Rs. 918.79 crore and redemptions of Rs. 671.88 crore. With an estimated 117 crore shares transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF), valued at almost Rs. 50,000 crore, and a dividend of Rs. 5700 crore included on these shares, the number of unclaimed shares is equally startling.
