Banks move to trace unused accounts

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Halifax is trying to hand back £29.6 million to people who have not touched their account for 15 years, while HSBC aims to help 17,000 customers reclaim £24 million.

The drive is being launched ahead of the introduction of the Government's Unclaimed Assets Scheme, the bill for which is currently going through Parliament.

Under the scheme, money that has been left in accounts for at least 15 years without any customer-initiated activity will be transferred to the Central Reclaim Fund and be reinvested in community projects, although people will never lose their right to reclaim their cash.

Halifax has so far handed back £17.5 million to customers that was languishing in forgotten accounts. But it said it was still trying to trace the owners of four accounts with more than £100,000 in them, while it also has 25 dormant accounts with balances of more than £50,000.

Overall though, 70% of unused accounts have balances of less than £50, it said.

The group said London had the highest concentration of dormant accounts, with balances totalling £5.6 million sitting in accounts that have not been touched for at least 15 years, followed by the South East at £5.4 million and the North West at £3.8 million.

In a bid to track down the owners of these accounts the group has registered all dormant accounts with the UK's Unclaimed Assets register, while it has also taken out adverts in the national and local press alerting people to the issue and giving them details on how to reclaim their cash.

HSBC is writing to more than 12,000 customers who have not touched their accounts for 15 years, while it is trying to trace a further 5,000 with dormant accounts who are no longer at the address the bank has for them. The group said seven of the accounts had balances of more than £100,000 in them, while the average balance in a dormant savings account is £1,400.

The group is also planning to contact all customers with accounts that have not been used for more than two years to ensure that mail from the bank is not going to the wrong address.