HM TREASURY News
Release (PN12/09) issued by COI News Distribution Service. 17
February 2009
The Government
today launched a consultation document on secondary legislation to
establish a UK dormant accounts scheme. Subject to responses, the
Government will introduce the secondary legislation in Parliament
later this year.
Many people forget about, or lose track of, small deposits of
money in bank and building society accounts. Despite the efforts
of banks and building societies to reunite these funds with their
owners, they build up as unclaimed assets in the banking system.
The consultation document sets out draft secondary legislation to
extend the scope of the Financial Services Authority's
regulation to include dormant accounts reclaim funds. It also
places a requirement on building societies participating in the
scheme for smaller institutions to publicly disclose information
in line with the requirements placed on smaller banks by the Act.
Ian Pearson, Economic Secretary to the Treasury said:
"The Government is committed to carefully investing this
unclaimed money back into society, while making sure that people
can retrieve money they may have forgotten that they had. I want
to welcome this consultation as a step towards delivering a scheme
that is fair for bank account holders while benefiting good causes
right across the UK."
Notes for Editors
1. As announced in the 2005 Pre-Budget Report (PBR), the
Government has been working with the banking industry to design a
scheme to allow money in dormant accounts otherwise known as
'unclaimed assets' to be reinvested in society.
2. Following preparatory work with industry, the Government
issued, in 2007, two consultation documents on a proposed scheme.
The first, A UK Unclaimed Asset Scheme: a consultation was
published in March 2007 and set out proposals for the operation of
the scheme. A second consultation, Unclaimed Assets Distribution
Mechanism: a consultation was published in May 2007 and set out
the Government's proposed principles for the distribution of
available money in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
3. This consultation document follows the successful passage of
the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008, which
received Royal Assent on 26 November 2008.
4. The Act enables banks and building societies to transfer
dormant accounts to a central reclaim fund for distribution to the
benefit of the community, while ensuring that the right of account
holders to reclaim their money is protected.
5. In the March 2007, consultation paper, the industry committed
to participate in the scheme and to take the lead in selecting or
setting up a reclaim fund.
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Correspondence and Enquiry Unit on 020 7270 4558 or by e-mail to public.enquiries@hm-treasury.gov.uk
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