Losing track of one bank account may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose accounts worth more than £1bn looks like... well, Oscar Wilde would have a field day coming up with a suitably acerbic witticism.
Yet according to government figures, that’s exactly how much money is currently languishing unclaimed in banks, building societies and National Savings (NS&I) accounts across the UK.
In order to reunite lost accounts with their owners, a new easy-to-use scheme has been set up: www.mylostaccount.org.uk was launched last week as a joint venture between the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), the Building Societies Association (BSA) and NS&I to allow individuals to search for accounts in their name.
All 59 of the UK’s building societies, 42 banks and all NS&I products, including Post Office savings and premium bonds, are included in the search, and anyone can use the free service by logging on to the website.
The forms take only a few minutes to fill in and can be completed by the account holder or a nominated representative. Previous names and addresses are required.
The organisations contacted will then carry out a search of their accounts and you will be informed if an account matches your details.
Since the website opened last week, more than 10,000 people have used it and as a result more than 15,000 forms have been sent out to account providers requesting information.
The search process can take up to a month for NS&I and up to three months for banks and building societies – obviously the more information you are able to provide, the less time the searches will take.
If the organisation your account was with does not exist because it was sold, then the successor will take up the search instead. If you do not have access to the internet to use the online search option, you can instead contact the BBA, BSA and NS&I directly by post.
The most common reason for people losing track of an account is because they fail to update all their financial providers with their contact details when they move house or forget about accounts opened for them when they were children, according to NS&I.
It is estimated that approximately £250 to £350m is sitting in dormant bank accounts, up to £150m in building societies and £466m in NS&I accounts. All three organisations say the website will offer a convenient way to access all the individual tracing schemes they run. They claim they will be able to cope with the extra demand because they can access services already in place.
Since it set up its tracing service in 2001, NS&I has initiated almost 200,000 traces on dormant accounts. John Prout at NS&I says that at this time of year a little extra money is likely to be particularly useful to customers.
But in spite of already having tracing systems in place, last summer a Treasury select committee accused the organisations of sitting back and not taking a suitably active role in reuniting people with lost money.
The issue of what to do with lost bank and building society money has been building for some time. Under the unclaimed assets scheme, which will begin in 2009, lost money from unused accounts will be used for community projects.
The banks and building societies say they are committed to redoubling reunification efforts in the run up to the introduction of the scheme. However, even if the account holders have not yet claimed their money the scheme will have no bearing on their rights to the content of the accounts.
