Banks have as much as Rs3,652 crore 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 Rs3,652.64 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 Rs3,237 crore, while for private sector and foreign lenders they were Rs 340 crore and Rs 75 crore, respectively.
SBI, the country's largest bank, had Rs539 crore of total unclaimed deposits.