Memorandum submitted by National Savings
and Investments (NS&I)
At the Sub-Committee meeting on Wednesday 21
February, there was discussion on the amount that NS&I held
in unclaimed assets/dormant funds.[17]
The 2005 Pre-Budget Report set out a definition
under the proposed unclaimed assets scheme. This stated:
"The Government and the industry have agreed
that the definition of an unclaimed asset should generally cover
accounts where there has been no customer activity for a period
of 15 years as that will be best identify those accounts that
are genuinely unclaimed."
In addition, the recently published HM Treasury
consultation "A UK unclaimed Asset Scheme" proposes
to define dormant accounts:
"Current and deposit accounts where there
has been no customer-initiated activity for at least 15 years."
Previously NS&I had used a figure of £1.8
billion which was based on a different definition which included:
— all unclaimed Premium bonds prizes;
— all lost contact holdings—where
we know where have lost touch with our customer (eg mail returned
undelivered); and
— account products where there have
been no transactions for five years or more.
At the Sub-Committee session, we stated that
a preliminary review of the 15-year definition had produced an
estimated figure of £1.4 billion.
We have now completed the review and the level
of unclaimed assets under the 15-year definition is £993
million.
March 2007
17 This memorandum was submitted as further supplementary
evidence following NS&I's appearance before the Treasury Sub-Committee
on the National Savings and Investments: Annual Report and
Accounts 2005-06, 21 February 2007. The oral and written evidence
of that session was published as HC 327-i. Back
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