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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RESEARCH IN COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT & SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJARCMSS) [ Vol. 9 | No. 4 (I) | October - December, 2026 ]

Unclaimed Financial Assets in India: A FinTech–FinCare Analysis of Scale, Causes and Policy Response

Dr. Anupriya Srivastava & Ms. Ria Agarwal

India's formal financial system holds a large and growing stock of money that owners or their heirs have not claimed. This paper consolidates and re-verifies official disclosures for six pools (bank deposits, life-insurance proceeds, mutual funds, company dividends and shares, post-office small savings and provident-fund balances) and reads them through a FinTech–FinCare lens: digital expansion has widened participation, but post-onboarding care (nominees, KYC upkeep, heir awareness and assisted claims) has lagged. Drawing on regulator reports, parliamentary replies, government press releases and RTI disclosures, each figure is graded by evidential quality and conflicting numbers are reconciled. Verified cash-type pools total about ₹1.14 lakh crore: ₹72,454 crore of bank deposits in the RBI's DEA Fund (28 January 2026), ₹20,062 crore with life insurers, ₹9,330 crore in inoperative EPF accounts, about ₹9,000 crore of IEPF dividends and about ₹3,000 crore in mutual funds. Shares held by the IEPF Authority add roughly ₹89,000 crore at market value. Reported recovery ratios are low, generally below 4% of stock, despite new search portals and the 2025 "Your Money, Your Right" campaign. Because definitions and reporting dates differ across regulators, no single official total exists. We recommend common definitions, one consolidated annual report, a consent-based unified search layer and claimant-side incentives.

  1. Business Standard. (2022, December 13). Over a billion unclaimed shares in IEPF, shows Lok Sabha data.
  2. Business Standard. (2023a, May 10). Investor queue outside IEPF grows longer by the year, shows data.
  3. Business Standard. (2023b, June 26). Govt to launch portal for unclaimed shares, dividends by February 2024.
  4. Business Standard. (2024a, March 5). 30 banks join RBI UDGAM to search for recipients of unclaimed deposits [PTI].
  5. Business Standard. (2024b, May 30). Unclaimed deposits with banks rise 26% to Rs 78,213 crore: RBI report [PTI].
  6. Business Standard. (2024c, December 23). Over Rs 20k cr of unclaimed amounts lie with life insurers at end of FY24.
  7. Business Standard. (2025, November 18). Need to track, trace unclaimed insurance funds: Irdai member Iyer.
  8. Business Standard. (2026, January 9). FinMin to review PSBs' progress on unclaimed deposits on January 14.
  9. BusinessToday. (2015, April 24). Over Rs 1,000 crore lying unclaimed in post offices.
  10. BusinessToday. (2025, July 18). Unclaimed PPF, NSC, SCSS accounts to be frozen twice a year if inactive for over 3 years.
  11. BusinessToday. (2026a, April 12). Reliance Industries tops IEPF unclaimed shares; ₹89,000 crore stuck across 1,671 companies: Report.
  12. BusinessToday. (2026b, July 3). ₹9,330 crore unclaimed in 30.9 lakh dormant EPF accounts, enough to build 3 IITs: RTI.
  13. Deccan Chronicle. (2025, September 30). RBI to pay banks for returning unclaimed deposits to claimants.
  14. Deccan Herald. (2012). Over Rs 750 cr lying [unclaimed in post-office savings accounts].
  15. Deccan Herald. (n.d.). Inoperative EPF accounts rise to 5 fold worth Rs 8,505.23 crore in six years.
  16. Free Press Journal. (2026, February 11). Unclaimed bank deposits in RBI's DEA Fund reach ₹72,454 crore, government promotes UDGAM portal & multiple nominations [PTI].
  17. Government of India. (2016). Senior Citizens' Welfare Fund Rules, 2016.
  18. IANS. (2025, December 9). Rightful owners claim over Rs 2,000 crore under 'Your Money, Your Right' campaign: Minister.
  19. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India. (n.d.). Master circular: Unclaimed amounts of policyholders.
  20. Lawrbit. (2025a, October 29). RBI revised operational guidelines: Depositor Education and Awareness Fund Scheme.
  21. Lawrbit. (2025b, June 10). Transfer of shares to IEPF: Procedure and claim guidelines.
  22. Ministry of Labour and Employment. (2022, April 7). Rajya Sabha Starred Question No. 381: Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana.
  23. Onmanorama. (2020, February 21). Six lakh unclaimed post office accounts in Kerala to be transferred to welfare fund.
  24. Outlook Money. (2026, July 29). Unclaimed funds in IEPF: Over 75,000 claims approved in two years, Rs 77.82 crore dividend refunded.
  25. Press Information Bureau. (2025a, December 26). Your Money, Your Right.
  26. Press Information Bureau. (2025b). 'Your Money, Your Right' campaign accelerates settlement of unclaimed assets.
  27. Reserve Bank of India. (2023, August 17). RBI launches UDGAM: Centralised web portal for searching unclaimed deposits [Press release].
  28. Securities and Exchange Board of India. (2025, February 12). Service platform for investors to trace inactive and unclaimed mutual fund folios (Circular SEBI/HO/IMD/IMD-SEC-3/P/CIR/2025/15), as reproduced by TaxGuru.
  29. Upstox. (2026, February 11). Over ₹72,000 crore lying unclaimed with banks; SBI alone accounts for nearly ₹19,528 crore.
  30. Whalesbook. (2026, June 29). Rs 8,973 crore in insurance funds remain unclaimed: How to check.

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