Mumbai, Sept. 17 -- It's not uncommon for people to forget about a bank account when they have several of them. Let's say you shift jobs and open a new salary account with another bank, and once you start using that for your day-to-day transactions, you may forget about the older account over time.

India's banking regulator, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), does not like it when you leave your savings or current account idle for too long. So, it's marked inoperative (dormant) after two years of no transactions, and certain financial transactions are blocked unless reactivated by the customer. As per RBI guidelines, banks notify customers after 12 months of no transactions, warning that the account may turn inoperative.

"A dormant account is...