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In December, I wrote an open letter on LinkedIn to our new RBI Governor, Sanjay Malhotra. And, this post is to thank him - Genuine praiseworthy action ❤️ .. My open letter was penned just a day after Sanjay Sir took over as RBI Governor. - And, my plea was about a quiet Rs 90k crore worth national failure hiding in our banking system - a mountain of unclaimed deposits - Money that has been forgotten by its owners, or left behind by people who passed away without their families knowing I had called out then, that every single rupee sitting idle is a rupee pulled out of our economy. It’s money that isn’t funding a small business, paying for an education, or covering a medical emergency. For the heirs, these could be life-changing sums. .. In my letter, I pointed out that previous RBI attempts to fix this were weak. - The 100 day 100 pay campaign was a nice idea, but it only focused on the top 100 deposits per district. A tiny fraction of the problem. We never even saw the results - The Udgam portal was launched to centralize the search. But with ZERO publicity, it was basically useless. Most people don’t even know it exists Meanwhile, banks are incredibly proactive in charging penalties for not maintaining a minimum balance. But for accounts holding lakhs, untouched for yrs? Silence. The old strategies were a COMPLETE failure, as under the previous Governor, under whose watch a lot of good things happened for the economy and banking industry, this was never a priority. And as a result, the problem ballooned from less than Rs 30k crores to over Rs 90k crores. .. Now, for the good news. I have no idea if Governor Malhotra saw my letter. But he CLEARLY made this a top priority. That Rs 90k crore mountain from December? By July this year, it was already down to Rs 67k crores. - That is a MASSIVE ~25% reduction in just over 6 months - And, it is equivalent to RBI infusing a massive Rs 23k crore into the economy .. And now, the RBI has issued a new directive. All banks have a 3-month mission to aggressively settle these unclaimed funds - deposits, dividends, pensions, everything. And, this is what real action looks like. It’s not just about returning money. It’s about restoring trust and proving that the system works for the common person. This is a hearty and desperately needed change. And for this, our RBI Governor deserves all the claps! 👏👏