Unclaimed deposits of Rs 3,652 crore lying with banks

Banks have as much as Rs 3,652 crore (Rs 36.52 billion) of unclaimed deposits lying with them, with the State Bank of India (SBI) alone accounting for about 15 per cent of the amount, the government informed Parliament on Friday.

"The total amount of unclaimed deposits (more than 10 years old) lying with all scheduled commercial banks at the end of December 2012 is over Rs 3,652.64 crore," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

He said banks are required to submit a return to the Reserve Bank within 30 days of the close of the calendar year for all accounts that have not been operated for 10 years.

Total unclaimed deposits in public sector banks stood at Rs 3,237 crore (Rs 32.37 billion), while for private sector and foreign lenders they were Rs 340 crore and Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million), respectively.

SBI, the country's largest bank, had Rs 539 crore (Rs 5.39 billion) of total unclaimed deposits. The SBI group, which includes five associate banks, had unclaimed deposits of Rs 714 crore (Rs 7.14 billion).

Canara Bank had unclaimed funds of Rs 526 crore (Rs 5.26 billion), followed by Union Bank of India (Rs 390 crore) and Punjab National Bank (Rs 385 crore).

Among private sector players, ICICI Bank had unclaimed deposits of Rs 101 crore (Rs 1.01 billion) while HDFC Bank had Rs 13 crore (Rs 130 million).