Unclaimed assets within the financial system

Between £400 million and £500 million is currently held in dormant bank and building society accounts in the UK where, for whatever reason, a financial institution has lost contact with an account holder. A large proportion of this money will never be reclaimed by its rightful owner. The Government, working with the banking industry, has therefore proposed the establishment of an unclaimed assets scheme to put these dormant accounts to productive use whilst continuing to recognise the ongoing rights of customers to reclaim their accounts at any stage.

British Bankers Association Chief Executive Angela Knight CBE said: “We applaud plans to release truly unclaimed money and put it to good use. Our members are fully committed to working closely with the Government to make the unclaimed assets scheme a success. It will be for the Government to ensure the money makes a positive difference in the community.

"As the committee acknowledges, we are already making significant efforts to reunite customers with funds in dormant accounts. We have boosted our campaign in the run-up to the unclaimed assets scheme, leading to a 30-fold increase in claims through the BBA.

“We agree with the need to make it simple for customers to claim. The BBA’s central re-claim team is now handling 400 claims a day, often helping claimants who do not know which bank holds their funds.

“We are working closely with the Building Societies Association and National Savings & Investment towards a seamless, integrated claims process, to be in place before the unclaimed asset scheme begins.”

Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of the National Consumer Council (NCC), commented: “We are delighted to see that our recommendations to make it easier for people to be reunited with their money have been echoed by the Committee.

“Our proposal for a “UK Lost and Found” service is something that we having been calling on industry to put into practice for some time. We are pleased that the Committee agrees that a ‘single search facility’ is the way forward”.

This one-stop shop would link the existing schemes run by the British Bankers Association (BBA), the Building Societies Association (BSA) and National Savings and Investments (NS& I), enabling consumers to make one search for their lost account, instead of potentially three separate searches.

A comprehensive media campaign to raise consumer awareness around dormant accounts is essential to communicate clear and consistent messages and to avoid scaremongering. NCC and CUA welcomes the Committee’s recommendation for advertising on TV and in print media to achieve this.

Ed Mayo adds, “A push to get banks to be more proactive in seeking out dormant account owners is essential. We want to see more banks systematically seeking to reunite account holders with their assets. Hats off to HBOS for taking the initiative to track down dormant account holders - we call on other providers to follow this example.”