Examine the role of inter-regulatory coordination between RBI, IRDAI, and SEBI in protecting the interests of citizens with unclaimed financial assets.

Q. Examine the role of inter-regulatory coordination between RBI, IRDAI, and SEBI in protecting the interests of citizens with unclaimed financial assets. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

Unclaimed financial assets — dormant bank deposits, unpaid insurance proceeds and idle mutual fund amounts — are spread across three separate regulatory silos. With over ₹73,000 crore lying unclaimed across them [1], inter-regulatory coordination has become the decisive instrument for reuniting citizens with their own money.

Scale and statutory backdrop - Under Section 26A, Banking Regulation Act, 1949 [2], the DEA Fund Scheme, 2014 requires balances unoperated for 10 years to be transferred to RBI's Depositor Education and Awareness Fund [3]. - As of February 2026, the unclaimed corpus stood at ₹60,518 crore (public sector banks), ₹8,973.89 crore (insurers) and ₹3,749.34 crore (mutual funds) [1] — a genuinely cross-sectoral problem.

Coordinated architecture built so far - Parallel search platforms: RBI's UDGAM, now integrating 30 banks covering ~90% of DEA Fund value [4]; IRDAI's Bima Bharosa; SEBI's MITRA [1]. - Joint outreach: the DFS-led "Your Money, Your Right" campaign (October–December 2025) ran special camps in 748 districts with all three regulators, restituting ₹5,777 crore across 22.95 lakh claims [1]. - An inter-regulatory push toward a single integrated portal seeks to end institution-by-institution searching, which is the core difficulty faced by legal heirs — a concern also raised in a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court in 2026.

Persisting gaps - UDGAM is search-only; settlement must still be pursued with each bank separately [4]. - Roughly 10% of DEA Fund value, largely in smaller and co-operative banks, remains outside the portal [4]. - Three separate portals with different registration processes dilute the single-window promise; there is no proactive alert to nominees or heirs.

Coordination has thus moved the system from fragmented disclosure to a shared, campaign-backed transparency architecture, though it stops short of an end-to-end claims mechanism. Converging UDGAM, Bima Bharosa and MITRA into one identity-linked portal, with universal nomination and automatic intimation to heirs, would complete this transition — advancing depositor protection as an essential dimension of inclusive growth.

(~330 words)

Sources: 1. RBI, IRDAI and SEBI Intensify Measures to Help Citizens Reclaim Unclaimed Deposits — PIB — corpus figures across banking, insurance and mutual funds; UDGAM, Bima Bharosa, MITRA; "Your Money, Your Right" campaign data 2. Banking Regulation Act, 1949 — RBI — Section 26A as statutory basis for the DEA Fund 3. FAQs on Depositor Education and Awareness Fund Scheme, 2014 — RBI — 10-year rule and transfer of unclaimed balances 4. FAQs on UDGAM Portal — RBI — 30 banks integrated, ~90% coverage by value, search-only limitation