In a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by RTI activist Subhash Aggarwal, the country's banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that there are more than one crore inoperative bank accounts in the country, which have funds of more than Rs. 2400 crore lying as unclaimed deposits in them.

RBI released data according to which, the country's largest bank, State Bank of India, has about 10 lakh inoperative accounts which have a total of Rs. 233 crore unclaimed deposits. All the public sector banks together have about 86 lakh dormant accounts, which have over Rs. 1,900 crore funds lying in them. Private sector banks have over Rs. 233 crore in about 14 lakh dormant accounts.

Earlier, RBI had issued a circular to banks asking them to treat those savings and currents accounts as inoperative, in which there have been no transactions for a period of two years or more. Plus, there should be no charge levied on the customers for activation of these accounts. It further asked the banks to credit their respective savings account interest rates on all accounts, irrespective of whether the account is dormant or active.

RBI's circular further added that the banks have to find the customers or their legal heirs of these inoperative accounts and then carry forward the procedure from there on.