A UK bank or building society account that nobody has used for 15 years does not necessarily stay with the lender for ever. Under the Dormant Assets Scheme, a participating firm can transfer the balance to Reclaim Fund Ltd (RFL), the scheme's administrator, and the account holder keeps a claim to the money. The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes the surplus, describes the source of its funding as financial accounts that have not been used for more than 15 years.
The legal basis
The scheme rests on the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008, and the transfer provisions in its first section came into force on 12 March 2009. Once a bank or building society transfers the balance of a dormant account to an authorised reclaim fund, with the fund's consent, the customer no longer has a right against the bank for that money. Instead, the customer holds against the reclaim fund whatever right to payment they would have had against the bank if the transfer had not happened. The Dormant Assets Act 2022 amended the section and added wording stating that a transfer does not, by itself, amount to a breach of trust or fiduciary duty, or create other liability, beyond the reclaim fund's obligation to repay.
The second section of the same Act covers smaller banks and building societies. Under the amended provision, such a firm can transfer an agreed proportion of a dormant balance to the reclaim fund and pass the remainder to one or more charities, provided each charity has a recognised connection with the lender's local communities or the building society's purposes, and both the reclaim fund and the charity consent. The customer's right to repayment is preserved in the same way.
Money Saving Expert (MSE) says the scheme was set up by the government in 2011 to reunite people with cash left untouched for 15 years or more. Where an asset is deemed dormant and cannot be reunited with its owner, it can be passed to the Reclaim Fund and used for community and environmental projects.
Who takes part
Participation is voluntary. The government's strategy for the scheme, published on GOV.UK, says that most high-street banks and building societies have joined, and that firms decide for themselves whether to take part, how much to transfer and whether to continue. MSE makes the same point in more cautious terms: not every financial organisation is in the scheme, but all major high-street banks and building societies have signed up. An account held with a provider that has not joined stays outside the scheme.
Before a firm can transfer anything, the GOV.UK strategy says it must make extensive efforts to trace and reunite the owner. A balance can only go to RFL when that has failed and the asset is unlikely ever to be claimed. The strategy defines a dormant asset as an identifiable and attributable item, valued in money, which a participant is unable to reunite with its owner despite reasonable efforts.
What happens to the money
RFL is an arm's-length body of HM Treasury, and the GOV.UK strategy names it as the scheme's administrator. It does not spend the transferred balances. It keeps enough money in reserve to repay customers who come forward, and passes the surplus to The National Lottery Community Fund, the named distributor. RFL says it takes on full liability for the funds it receives, and reimburses customer reclaims in perpetuity, with any interest owed. The company also states that it holds no personal data for the money it receives from participating banks and building societies.
The fund then divides the money between the four nations of the UK. The strategy notes that the government can give policy directions for the English share, while the devolved administrations and the fund are responsible for dormant assets funding in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In 2024, RFL reported that the scheme had passed a cumulative £1 billion transferred to good causes, a figure the GOV.UK strategy also cites.
How account holders get money back
RFL's own guidance is that a customer who wants to reclaim dormant funds should contact the original bank or building society through its usual channels, rather than the reclaim fund. The company points people to mylostaccount.org.uk, the free search service run by UK Finance, the Building Societies Association and National Savings & Investments (NS&I), according to MSE.
MSE notes a limit on that route. If a bank or building society still holds up-to-date contact details for a customer, it may not have marked the account as lost, and the account will not appear through My Lost Account. In that case, the account holder has to approach the provider directly. MSE also points to Gretel, a fintech firm set up in 2022 that runs a free search across bank accounts, investments, pensions and other products. Gretel runs a soft search on the user's credit report, which does not affect the credit score, and it only finds institutions that have signed up to it.
Where the owner of the account has died, MSE says the person searching must prove their authority, for example with a grant of probate or letters of administration, before the provider releases any account information. The My Lost Account search form asks for the owner's date of birth, previous addresses and date of death.
MSE also warns about fraud in this area. Its advice is that anyone who calls offering to find lost money for a fee should be hung up on, because official services do not contact people to offer that service.
Expansion beyond bank accounts
The Dormant Assets Scheme began with bank and building society accounts, but the GOV.UK strategy says it was expanded in 2022 into three further sectors: insurance and pensions, investment and wealth management, and securities. Aviva and Legal & General were the first participants in the expanded scheme.
The strategy also describes the work needed to bring pensions and client money into the scheme, which required changes to tax legislation and regulatory rules. The Dormant Assets Act 2022 requires the Secretary of State to review the scheme periodically, and the first review was laid before Parliament in February 2025, with further reviews due every five years.