The Reserve Bank has established the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund (DEAF) to create awareness about such dormant accounts.

"The rate of interest payable by banks to the depositors/ claimants on the unclaimed interest bearing deposit transferred to the fund shall be 4 percent simple interest per annum," Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

As per the provisions of DEAF, amount to the credit of any account with any bank which has not been operated upon for a period of 10 years or any deposit or any amount remaining unclaimed for more than ten years shall be credited to the fund, within a period of three months from the expiry of 10 years, Sitharaman said.

RBI has issued the operational guidelines of the DEAF scheme to all banks in May, 2014.

However, DEAF provisions do not prevent a depositor from claiming his/her deposit or operating account after the expiry of the period of 10 years and the banking company should pay the deposit amount on the claim refund of such amount from DEAF, she said.

She said the total amount credited to the fund as on July 1, 2014 by 633 banks was Rs 3,455.44 crore.

The minister said DEAF should be utilised for promotion of depositors' interest and for such other purposes necessary for the promotion of depositors' interest by RBI from time to time.

PTI