The Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to launch a special drive to find the whereabouts of customers or legal heirs in respect of existing accounts, which have already been transferred to the separate ledger of ‘inoperative accounts’.

“Banks should make an annual review of accounts in which there are no operations, like no credit or debit, other than crediting of periodic interest or debiting of service charges, for more than one year.

Customers may be approached and informed in writing that there has been no operation in their accounts and ascertain reasons for the same. In case the non operation of the account is due to shifting of customers from the locality, they may be asked to provide details of new bank accounts to which the balance in the existing account could be transferred,” said RBI.

However, if the letters return undelivered, they may immediately be put on enquiry to find out the whereabouts of customers or their legal heirs in case they are deceased, noted RBI. In case the whereabouts of customers are not traceable, banks should consider contacting the persons who had introduced the account holder.

They could also consider contacting the employer or any other person whose details are available with them. They could also consider contacting the account holder telephonically in case his telephone number or cell number has been furnished to the bank.

In case of NRI accounts, the bank may also contact the account holders through e-mail and obtain their confirmation of the details of the account, the central bank said.

A savings as well as current account should be treated as inoperative or dormant if there are no transactions in the account for over a period of two years.

“In case any reply is given by the account holder giving the reasons for not operating the account, banks should continue classifying the same as an operative

account for one more year, within which period, the account holder may be requested to operate the account.

However, in case the account holder still does not operate the same during the extended period, banks should classify the same as inoperative account after the expiry of the extended period,” RBI said. RBI noted there should not be any charge for activation of the inoperative account and that the amounts lying in the inoperative accounts ledger should be properly audited by the bank auditors.

Interest on savings bank accounts should be credited on a regular basis, whether the account is operative or not. If a fixed deposit receipt matures and proceeds are unpaid, the amount left unclaimed with the bank will attract savings bank rate of interest, RBI said.