The Reserve Bank of India has informed the Supreme Court that 30 banks are now integrated with its Unclaimed Deposits – Gateway to Access Information (UDGAM) portal. According to reports from Mint, this integration enables legal heirs to search for unclaimed deposits of deceased account holders on a single digital platform. The submission was made before a bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi during a public interest litigation hearing on Tuesday. The counsel appearing for the RBI informed the bench that around 44 lakh searches have been made on UDGAM, which is an interactive portal that facilitates registered users to search unclaimed deposits across multiple banks.
Launched on 17 August 2023, the UDGAM portal has already seen widespread usage, with about 44 lakh searches conducted to date. As reported by Mint, users can enter basic details of deceased account holders and search across participating banks to locate unclaimed deposits. The central bank clarified that the portal is only an information and search facility, with legal heirs required to approach the relevant bank or financial institution directly to claim funds after locating the account details. The system allows users to search across participating banks using basic identifiers - name, date of birth, PAN, and Aadhaar.
Security experts have raised concerns about the UDGAM portal's potential as a fraud facilitation tool. According to recent analysis, the portal functions as a 'search engine for money' that allows anyone to search unclaimed deposits across 30 banks using basic identifiers - name, date of birth, PAN, and Aadhaar. While disbursement still happens through banks or the DEA Fund, the real value for fraudsters lies in data discovery capabilities, including identifying deceased individuals, dormant accounts, and accounts with lower KYC requirements that are easier to spoof. The system creates three scam-ready vectors: false heir claims through document mills, phishing attacks using spoofed UDGAM branding, and potential internal bank collusion where pressure to clean up old accounts could lead to misclassification and siphoning via fake accounts.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the issue is how legal heirs of deceased depositors find out about unclaimed deposits lying in bank accounts. He stated that while the RBI has said they have asked all banks to put details on the UDGAM portal, deposits were also being made in post offices and insurance, with nothing having been done to integrate them. The petitioner argued that the mechanism should be such that legal heirs can find out all these details in one search. The Supreme Court has now sought detailed responses from the Union government and financial regulators, with the matter scheduled for hearing on 19 May.
