ASBA

Under ASBA the money never leaves the applicant's account until allotment, so it continues earning interest and no refund process is required for unallotted portions — a substantial improvement over the earlier system where funds left the account for weeks. Retail applicants now typically apply through a UPI mandate, which blocks the amount on approval. The blocked amount cannot be used for anything else during the issue period, so applying for multiple issues simultaneously requires the balance for all of them. Failure to approve the mandate within the window simply voids the application.