BSA welcomes Bill on unclaimed assets

The Building Societies Association (BSA) welcomes the Government's confirmation of its plans for most building societies to be able to use their members' unclaimed assets to support good causes in their local communities.

This was set out in the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill, published today.

Commenting on the Bill, Adrian Coles, Director-General of the BSA, said: "As mutuals, it is important for building societies to be able to give back to the local communities from where they draw their members. The 'small and local' definition in the Bill is good news and allows nearly all societies to contribute to charities and good causes in their local communities. The Bill also confirms that account holders who have lost touch with their building society can reclaim their money at any time; they will not lose out as a result of the unclaimed assets scheme.

"The BSA has been working closely with the Government and the British Bankers' Association (BBA) to bring about the new unclaimed assets scheme. Building societies are committed to reuniting members with their lost accounts and during 2008 there will be increased efforts by the industry to track down lost savers" .

Central to the new Scheme will be a reclaim fund that will be responsible for collecting unclaimed assets, ensuring money is available to account holders who come forward to claim their money, and making any excess funds available to charity. The details of these arrangements are contained in the Bill laid today and in a parallel press release issued by the BBA, which the BSA supports.

In addition to plans in the Bill:

The BSA, BBA and NS& I will jointly launch in January 2008 a 'one stop shop' website, drawing together the existing free tracing schemes of the three organisations. The site will enable customers to search for a building society, bank and/or National Savings account via a single, simple process.

Building societies will be undertaking tracing activity in respect of their lost account customers - this will include writing to lost account holders, and may involve the use of tracing agencies and local and national media work.

The Banking Code will be revised (to be published in March 2008) to give further commitments about reuniting customers with their money and confirm that their money can be reclaimed at any time.

BSA Lost Accounts Tracing Scheme

The BSA operates a free service for people to trace any building society savings with which they have lost touch, in which all 59 UK societies participate. Individuals can complete an online application form or leaflets can be downloaded from the BSA website (www.bsa.org.uk) or requested via the BSA Consumer Line on 020 7437 0655. Alternatively customers can pick up a leaflet at their local building society branch. The BBA and NS& I also operate free tracing services.