The backstop nobody thinks about until a bank fails: a Rs 5 lakh promise standing behind every deposit.
RegTrac Brief · 2026-09-13 · Statutory · adjacent · register as of 12 September 2026
What changed
- No sourced change is logged for DICGC since RegTrac's register was rebuilt on 12 September 2026. The brief records the standing position, and the next revision will report the first sourced movement (register entry).
Why it matters
- DICGC is wholly owned by the RBI and insures deposits — cover stands at Rs 5 lakh per depositor, per bank, per right of the depositor, raised from Rs 1 lakh with effect from 4 February 2020.
- It is an insurer of last resort, not a conduct regulator: it does not supervise banks and cannot order a bank to behave differently.
- Premium is paid by insured banks, not by depositors, so the consumer's entire relationship with DICGC is passive — cover exists whether or not anyone knows about it.
- Statute and mandate: DICGC Act, 1961 (corporation constituted 1978) — DICGC official site · RegTrac register entry.
Who lobbies these decisions, and what consultation comments were filed, is the missing third layer — LobbyWatch (planned) — because regulators here do not systematically publish their comment trails; the accountability gaps are catalogued in the RegTrac register.
Who is affected
- Grievance route: Claims routed via failed banks; RBI Ombudsman for related disputes (DICGC site).
- The full route, with the register's own notes on escalation, is in the RegTrac register entry for DICGC.
What to watch
- Cover has not moved from Rs 5 lakh since February 2020 while nominal deposits have grown — the real value of the guarantee has been eroding quietly.
- There is no direct consumer channel to DICGC: claims are routed through the failed bank's liquidator and related disputes go to the RBI Ombudsman, which puts the payout timeline outside the depositor's control.
- RegTrac's register logs no sourced change at DICGC since it was built — for a backstop this quiet, that is itself the finding.
- Every watchpoint above is tracked against the RegTrac register entry for DICGC, as rebuilt on 12 September 2026; no line here rests on information the register does not carry.
Evidence
Editorial swarm: tracker ✓ · evidence ✓ · advocate ✓ · institutional ✓ · mapper ✓ · skeptic ✓ · gated by scripts/editorial.py on 2026-11-10 02:17 UTC.