After suggestions by the Conservatives that unclaimed assets from banks and building societies could be used to fund the Financial Assistance Scheme, the Building Societies Association has said that this would only raise around £60 million, and would raise false hope for those looking for compensation.
The Financial Assistance Scheme was set up to support people who were in pension schemes wound up before the introduction of the Pension Protection Fund. The Building Societies Association also pointed out that the money doesn't even belong to the Government, the banks or the building societies, but the account holder or their estate.
Our view
We have already commented on this issue when the Tories proposed it. As far as we are concerned - this is theft and they have no right to 'plunder' independent businesses assets. If a building society, bank or any other finance institution has 'orphan' assets then they should distribute them how they see fit after a period of reflection e.g. 25 years. In fact, under Money Laundering Regulations, they should be made to check the owner of these funds regularly and if they cannot be traced after a period they can then be distributed to other savers/members and not to people who have had nothing to do with the organisation. This should be part of the investment contract.
In addition, there should be a public 'orphaned assets register' where the names, dates of birth or business and organisation names can be inputted (and searched for a fee to cover the costs) with a response to say whether there are or possibly unclaimed assets to enable families to claim those assets.