UDGAM Portal: How to Find and Claim Your Unclaimed Bank Deposits
A forgotten savings account or an unclaimed fixed deposit does not disappear. Here is exactly how to search for it on the RBI's free UDGAM portal and claim the money back — with interest.
₹72,454 crore lying unclaimed with the RBI's DEA Fund (as on 28 January 2026)The short answer
- Bank balances that stay inoperative for 10 years or more are transferred by the bank to the RBI's Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund.
- The money never expires. The depositor, nominee or legal heir can claim it at any time, along with applicable interest.
- UDGAM is the RBI's free, centralised portal for searching such deposits across banks in one place — at udgam.rbi.org.in.
- UDGAM only finds the deposit. The claim itself is settled by the bank that held the account.
- No one — not the RBI, not your bank — charges a fee to release an unclaimed deposit. Any agent asking for money upfront is running a scam.
What counts as an "unclaimed deposit"
Under Section 26A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and the DEA Fund Scheme, 2014, a bank must move certain balances to the RBI once they have been dormant long enough. In practice, two situations account for almost all of it:
- Savings and current accounts with no customer-induced transaction for 10 years or more.
- Fixed and recurring deposits that were never claimed for 10 years from the date of maturity.
Other items also flow into the fund — unclaimed demand drafts and pay orders, sundry deposit balances, margin money left over after a letter of credit or guarantee is closed, and credit balances in loan accounts after final appropriation.
Transfer to the DEA Fund is an accounting move, not a forfeiture. When a valid claim is settled, the bank pays the depositor or the legal heir and then recovers the amount from the RBI. Interest continues to accrue on eligible deposits as per the scheme.
Why so much money goes unclaimed
The pattern is depressingly ordinary. Someone changes jobs and stops using an old salary account. A fixed deposit matures while the family is dealing with a bereavement. A depositor dies without telling anyone about a small deposit in another city, and no nomination was ever registered. Multiply that across four decades of Indian banking and you get a five-figure crore number.
| Bank group | Amount with DEA Fund | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Public sector banks | ₹60,571.02 crore | 83.6% |
| Private sector banks | ₹9,607.76 crore | 13.3% |
| Foreign banks | ₹2,275.01 crore | 3.1% |
| Total | ₹72,454 crore | 100% |
What UDGAM is — and what it is not
UDGAM stands for Unclaimed Deposits – Gateway to Access inforMation. The RBI launched it in August 2023 with seven banks and expanded search coverage to 30 banks the following month. Those 30 banks account for roughly 90% of the value sitting in the DEA Fund.
It is a discovery tool. It tells you that a deposit matching your details exists, at which bank, and gives you a reference number. It does not hold money, does not transfer money, and cannot settle a claim. Everything after the search happens at the bank branch.
Smaller banks and many co-operative banks have not been onboarded yet. Every bank is separately required to publish its own list of unclaimed deposits on its website — check the bank's site directly, or ask at the branch where the account was held.
How to search on UDGAM: three steps
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Register on the portal
Go to udgam.rbi.org.in. Registration asks for your name and mobile number, a password you set, and a captcha. You then verify with an OTP sent to that number. No documents are uploaded at this stage and there is no fee.
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Run the search
Log in and enter the account holder's name exactly as it appeared in bank records, then select the bank. You also need at least one identifier:
- PAN
- Voter ID number
- Driving licence number
- Passport number
- Date of birth
For a non-individual account — a company, trust or society — use the entity name, bank name and one of: PAN, CIN, name of the authorised signatory, or date of incorporation.
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Note the UDRN and go to the bank
A match returns the account holder's name, the place, the bank name and a UDRN (Unclaimed Deposit Reference Number). The UDRN is a masked identifier: it lets the bank locate the deposit without exposing the branch or account number publicly. Click the bank name — the link takes you to that bank's own unclaimed-deposit claim page.
Most people search their own name once, find nothing, and stop. Try your parents' and grandparents' names, maiden names, name spellings with and without middle names or initials, and each bank separately. Old records are full of transcription variants.
Claiming the money from the bank
If the account is your own
Visit the branch with the UDRN, standard KYC (PAN, Aadhaar, address proof) and whatever account details you still have — an old passbook, cheque leaf or deposit receipt helps. Fill in the bank's claim or account-reactivation form. Once the bank is satisfied, the amount is credited to an active account of yours, with applicable interest.
If you are claiming as a legal heir
The bar is higher, and the exact list varies by bank and by amount:
- Your own identity and address proof
- The depositor's death certificate
- Proof of relationship
- A legal heir certificate (from a court, or an SDM/tehsildar depending on the state)
- For larger amounts, a succession certificate from a civil court, or an indemnity bond with sureties
If a nomination was registered on the account, the process is considerably shorter. This is worth acting on today for accounts you do use: under the Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025, bank customers can register up to four nominations, successively or simultaneously.
The only official address is udgam.rbi.org.in. There is no UDGAM mobile app, no authorised agent, and no processing fee. Anyone who offers to "recover" your unclaimed deposit for a commission, asks for an advance payment, or asks you to share an OTP is defrauding you. Neither the RBI nor any bank ever asks for money to release a legitimate claim.
Common mistakes that end a search early
- Only checking your own name. The largest balances usually belong to a deceased parent or grandparent.
- Using today's spelling. Bank records may carry an initial, a middle name, or a regional transliteration you no longer use.
- Assuming a missing result means nothing exists. The portal covers 30 banks, not all of them.
- Confusing dormant with unclaimed. An account inoperative for two years is dormant — the money is still at the bank and only needs re-KYC to reactivate. The 10-year DEA Fund transfer is a different sta