Bank bids to find account owners
High street bank Halifax has announced it is stepping up its efforts to reunite people with the £44 million that it holds in dormant accounts.
The group said it would be writing to around 20,000 customers who had not used their accounts for 15 or more years to remind them about the money.
It is also running a further round of local and national press advertisements in a bid to jog people’s memories about accounts they may have lost track of over time.
The group has so far reunited people with more than £6 million since it first launched the campaign four months ago.
Mike Regnier, head of savings at Halifax, said: “The response to our campaign to reunite customers with their funds has been very encouraging, and we believe these next steps in the process will help more customers track down their money.”
The financial services industry has launched a major drive to reunite people with so-called dormant accounts ahead of Government plans to release the estimated £350 million to £500 million that has been untouched for 15 years and use it to finance community projects.
Halifax is the only UK bank to have its own reunification scheme, although National Savings and Investments, the British Bankers’ Association and the Building Societies Association are all running campaigns.
Halifax has set up a dormant accounts website which can be found at www.halifaxlocateaccounts.co.uk.