Call for action on 'dormant' accounts

Billions of pounds of assets have been forgotten

By Nathalie Knowles BBC Radio 4's Money Box

A Labour MP has called for an end to banks and building societies earning interest on the billions of pounds held in 'dormant' accounts.

The money has often been forgotten by its owners, because the amount is small or the person has died.

But sometimes, money can be moved by the bank into a 'dormant' account even when you do know about it, if you have not used the account for a while.

Speaking to the BBC's Money Box programme, Labour MP Martyn Jones, said banks should be doing more to reunite people with their money.

He said he would like to see the Irish example followed.

This whole episode has made me a very angry customer indeed and very suspicious about the whole business of 'dormant' accounts

Money Box listener Ken

"The Irish Government has brought in legislation which makes banks... make serious attempts to find the owner of the account.

"Otherwise... it goes into an account which is then run by the government for good causes... for the general good, rather than the good of the banks."

'Suspicious'

Money Box listener Ken had more than £3000 in a 30 day notice account at a High Street bank.

He found it had become dormant when he went in to make a withdrawal. And it was several weeks before he got it back.

He worries that his family might never have got the money if he had died before sorting it out.

He told Money Box: "This whole episode has made me a very angry customer indeed, and very suspicious about the whole business of 'dormant' accounts."

Incentive

Money Box put these concerns to Joanna Elson, of the British Bankers' Association.

She denied that banks were not taking enough action.

"I think that we actually have a good record on this.

"Ken clearly has had a very unfortunate experience. But I do not believe it is representative of the vast number of cases that there are.

"We run a system... to reunite people with their 'dormant' accounts... and it works very well. We have had 5000 claims since the scheme started."

She told the programme that banks make efforts to contact the customer after a certain period of time, and if that does not work, the account is deemed 'dormant'.

But Martyn Jones believes there is currently not enough incentive for banks to find account owners.

"There is no incentive until we have legislation. There is a huge amount of money that is not going to get claimed if we carry on with this complacent system."

BBC Radio 4's Money Box was broadcast on Saturday, 8 March 2003 at 1204 GMT