Expansion of Dormant Assets Scheme

July 7, 2021

During recent years the government has been looking into new methods of building upon the current dormant assets scheme, so that it can encompass a larger set of accounts surpassing the current options of only bank and building society accounts. After a government consultation last year, there are plans to expand the dormant assets scheme to involve assets from other sectors such as investment and wealth management, insurance and pensions and security. Expanding the scheme to include sectors such as the above could provide more than £880 million for social and environmental causes.

Initially the scheme was introduced in 2008 as the ‘dormant accounts scheme’. Upon its introduction, the scheme defined a ‘dormant account’ as an account that has been open for fifteen or more years, and the account holder has made no transactions.

The current scheme allows banks and building societies to transfer any money that is held within a dormant account into a central reclaim fund. The purpose of this fund is to manage the money sent by banks and building societies and manage the reclaim requests. They are also responsible for passing on any remaining money, not reclaimed, and distributing it to a variety of charities allowing the money to be reinvested into the community and the environment.

Account holders retain the ability to request their dormant account balance providing they can prove satisfactorily that the money is theirs. To this day, the scheme has been able to release over £745 million back into the community to help aid charities, initiatives and groups that are aiming to help the community, both socially and environmentally.

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