UK
Lost and Found
59. The CUA regarded the establishment of a centralised
database as unnecessary, but proposed the creation of a less data-intensive
scheme, "UK Lost and Found". This would be a low-cost,
single interface, capable of asking all financial institutions
whether they held an account on their systems belonging to a particular
individual. The objective would be to make it easier for consumers
to be reunited with their lost financial assets and reduce overall
administration without compromising data security. The CUA argued
that, if there were a single search interface requiring minimal
information, it would greatly increase the number of people that
attempted to trace their dormant accounts. A survey carried out
for the CUA showed that 58% of people claiming to have dormant
accounts regarded the sums contained to be too small to be worth
attempting reclaim. The CUA wondered "whether that is too
small given the present ease or otherwise in trying to find it
rather than too small because I do not care about that size of
money at all". [125]
60. The CUA outlined two possible models in their
report entitled Unclaimed Assets: Consumer protection and regulation
of dormant accounts.[126]
One would retain some basic information such as name, date of
birth and last known address centrally in a national register.
The other would not, instead securely interrogating databases
of dormant assets within each financial institution.[127]
The CUA explained in more detail how their proposed scheme might
work:
Quite simply, it could be a very thin interface
that allows web, telephone or similar access and it would distribute
the information that was put in to the present three systems that
you have through the BBA, the BSA and the National Savings [and
Investments] … That would feed directly through to the members
that were relevant. We do not see this as being a massive systems
cost on top of what is there already. This is trying to provide
a relatively cheap solution that makes things much easier for
consumers.[128]
The CUA's proposals would offer a single interface
for all dormant accounts, a simplified initial search, so consumers
could check at an early stage whether it was worth them continuing
their search and a variety of search channels including telephone,
internet and paper-based forms. The service would be free to the
end user. The CUA envisaged that industry and Government would
work together to develop and implement flexible identification
and verification requirements.[129]
61. When we asked the Economic Secretary for his
view of the CUA proposals he replied: "One never has a closed
mind on these matters. I am happy to listen to further consultations."[130]
Indeed, he stated that he had already set in motion plans to combine
the search portals run by the BBA, BSA and NS&I:
As I said, on the face of the Bill the first
priority will be a duty to reunite resources with customers, and
following a meeting that I had yesterday and conversations with
the British Bankers' Association I wrote yesterday to the British
Bankers' Association, to the Building Societies Association and
to National Savings urging them to come together and have a common
way of reuniting customers with their unclaimed assets, which
is common across banks, building societies and National Savings.[131]
Conclusions
62. The existing reclamation arrangements run
by the BBA, BSA and NS&I have had some success in reuniting
dormant accounts with their customers. However, the multiplicity
of search mechanisms may discourage some customers in reclaiming
their dormant accounts and a single search facility would be a
significant improvement in this area. We do not consider that
the establishment of a comprehensive register of dormant accounts,
requiring account details to be transmitted to a central repository,
is desirable at this moment. Such a system would be costly and
involve complex data security issues. We were impressed by the
proposal set out by the Commission on Unclaimed Assets for a single
interface that would not hold account data itself. The great merit
of this proposal would be that both costs and data transfer could
be minimised. We urge the Government to investigate how such an
interface could be adopted in order to unify the existing systems
run by the BBA, BSA and NS&I.
115 Ev 103 Back
116
Ev 103 Back
117
HM Treasury, Next Steps for Volunteering and Giving in the UK,
December 2002, para 2.37 Back
118
HM Treasury, Budget 2005, March 2005, para 5.87 Back
119
Q 319 Back
120
Ibid. Back
121
Ev 52 Back
122
Ev 95 Back
123
Q 30 Back
124
Q 320 Back
125
Q 228 Back
126
The Commission on Unclaimed Assets & National Consumer Council,
Unclaimed Assets: Consumer protection and regulation of dormant
accounts, April 2007, pp 18 to 20 Back
127
Ev 105 Back
128
Q 229 Back
129
Ev 104-105 Back
130
Q 320 Back
131
Q 310 Back
