Building Societies Association
The Prime Minister’s launch of The Big Society has put dormant - or “lost” - accounts back into the spotlight. David Cameron proposes the creation of a Big Society Bank to help finance social enterprises, charities and voluntary groups. This will be financed by dormant bank and building society account money, alongside private sector investment.
Out of the media spotlight, a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes by building societies to reunite as many of their lost savers as possible with their money. In 2008 and 2009, societies’ efforts reunited members with around 92,000 accounts, representing £47 million. It is estimated that around £115 million is still currently held in building society lost accounts. This is on a definition of 15 years or more of no customer-initiated activity.
The next step is for a reclaim fund to be established to enable the money in lost accounts to be transferred to the Big Society Bank. The Co-operative Financial Services has agreed to set this up and it is envisaged it will be up and running by the end of 2010, with the first funds being distributed to the Big Society Bank early in 2011.
Even where lost account money is transferred under the scheme, account holders will still be able to get their hands on it.
For savers looking to trace their lost funds www.mylostaccount.org.uk is the best starting point. Launched back in 2008 by the BSA, the British Bankers’ Association and NS&I, the site is a one-stop-shop to track down lost building society, bank and NS&I accounts in one simple search. The site has proved popular. Nearly 400,000 individuals have used the site to search for their lost account, with nearly 1.1 million visits since the launch.
