No plans on dormant bank accounts

BBC News – 05/06/06

The Isle of Man government still has no plans to raise money from dormant bank accounts, the Treasury Minister says.

Last year, UK Chancellor Gordon Brown announced plans to release unclaimed cash from bank and building societies to pay for community facilities.

Speaking in the House of Keys, Onchan MHK Peter Karran asked Allan Bell if any progress had been made on the issue since it was raised in January.

Mr Bell said he was monitoring what was happening with the scheme in the UK.

New debate
The Treasury Minister said using dormant funds was a complex issue that would only secure one-off payments, not a continuous source of cash.

"This is not a source of income to make up for shortfalls in government revenues," Mr Bell told the House.

"The best way to fill that is more efficient use of the money we have got at the moment and that is a whole new debate in itself."

An account passes from live to dormant when a bank or building society loses touch with the account holder for a period of three years.

Account holders will generally receive written warnings before their accounts pass from live to dormant.

Most of the accounts are believed to belong to people who have died.