Mumbai, Aug 10 (PTI) The RBI plans to standardise forms to process claims on deceased customers’ bank accounts and lockers within a 15-day timeframe and provide compensation to nominees for any settlement delays. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposes to come out with standard procedures for the settlement of claims in respect of bank accounts, and articles kept in safe custody or safe deposit lockers of deceased bank customers. The aim is to make the settlement more convenient and simpler. Towards this, the central bank has issued ‘Draft Circular – Reserve Bank of India (Settlement of Claims in respect of Deceased Customers of Banks) Directions, 2025’ and invited comments and feedback on it by August 27. “A bank shall use the standardised forms for receiving the claims and other documents…,” said the draft. It also has provisions for compensation for delay in the settlement of claims. In case a nominee has been provided in deposit accounts or lockers, he or she would have to submit a claim form, death certificate (deceased customer), and an officially valid document of the nominee/survivor towards verifying identity and address, the draft said. According to the draft, a bank should adopt a simplified procedure for settlement of claims in deposit accounts, where a deceased depositor had not made any nomination, keeping in view the imperative need to avoid inconvenience and undue hardship to the claimant/ legal heir. For the settlement of such claims, a bank, based on its risk management systems, should fix a threshold limit, subject to a minimum of ₹15 lakh. In cases of claim amount up to the threshold limit, additional documents like a bond of indemnity/ surety signed by the claimants and a letter of disclaimer/ no objection from non-claimant legal heirs, if applicable, will be required. For a claim amount above the threshold limit, a succession certificate, or a legal heir certificate issued by a competent authority, or a declaration regarding the legal heirs of the deceased depositor would also be needed. The draft also lists documents required for settlement of claims in a safe deposit locker and articles in safe custody kept by the deceased customer in cases without a nominee/survivor. It further said that a bank should settle a claim in respect of deposit accounts of a deceased customer within a period not exceeding 15 calendar days from the date of receipt of all the requisite documents associated with the claim, it said. “In case of safe deposit locker/ articles in safe custody, the bank shall, within 15 days of receipt of all the requisite documents, process the claim and issue communication to the claimant for fixing the date for taking inventory of the locker/ articles in safe custody,” said the draft. According to the draft, the standardised forms and other documents required for settlement of claims with respect to the deposit accounts/ safe deposit locker/ articles in safe custody kept by a deceased customer shou in a formal or creative style for better SEO.Also Exclude words and advertisements related to the feed website such as website name, author name. You must only respond with the modified content. Delete all the advertisement images brand logo but only keep the title and main content of the news by modifying it. You must only respond with the modified content. Block any jump outside of the site adarshnews.com. Basically remove any content or link related to original site. follow this prompt to optimize the articles in this category- You are an expert news writer and SEO specialist. Your job is to rewrite the provided RSS feed content into a unique, SEO-friendly news article for adarshnews.com. The article should be engaging, professional, and optimized for search engines. 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