Surge in claims for unclaimed assets from dormant Bank accounts

13th August 2007

UK consumers are increasingly turning to the British Bankers Association’s (BBA) account tracking service to claim money from dormant accounts. Claims using the BBA service have surged more than thirty-fold due to an awareness drive by banks, building societies and National Savings & Investment. Customers are claiming forgotten assets worth between £350 million and £500 million, in a move also thought to be influenced by government plans to move unclaimed cash to the Central Reclaim Fund, which will then be distributed to community projects. The assets must have been left unclaimed for 15 years before qualifying for the government scheme. The BBA says dormant accounts often occur when people move home and forget to inform the bank, they find bank books when someone dies or simply think the cash is not substantial enough to worry about. Chief executive of the BBA, Angela Knight said: “Money in dormant accounts still belongs to the customer. My advice is to phone, or get online, to the BBA and we’ll help you find it. It doesn’t matter how old the accounts is, how little money is in it, or even if the branch or bank has closed, our experts are trained to track it down.”

The BBA Dormant Accounts Website is https://www.bba.org.uk/bba/jsp/polopoly.jsp

For finding dormant UK Building Society accounts, please go to the BSA website at http://www.bsa.org.uk/events/speech/100564.htm or print out their tracing service application form at http://www.bsa.org.uk/docs/consumerpdfs/3205021205.pdf