Dormant accounts and escheatment

chinesetakeaway · Post by **chinesetakeaway** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:07 am

I was at CIMB the other day where I have term deposits to get a new card and they informed me that as I hadn’t made any deposit/withdrawals in 3 years the account had become dormant. I do have fixed deposits which pay annual interest. Anyway it’s a lot paperwork to reopen the account. Aside I asked how long would the account need to be dormant before the deposits were escheated? She asked a colleague and they said 5 years. This previously happened to my JPM brokerage account in the US. She said to stop the account becoming dormant I needed to make periodic deposit/withdrawals.

samrong01 · Post by **samrong01** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 7:56 am

This is quite surprising. Normally banks will keep an account current as long as there is "activity". Each bank can define activity as they wish but usually it just means logging on or doing balance enquiry every few months. If you were having monthly interest payments into your account then this is certainly activity but perhaps you were compounding the interest. I dont understand why there needs to be a lot of paper work to reopen. "Dormant" is not a legal status - just a status applied by bank management which can be removed at any time.

When I worked in banking in Kuwait in the 1990s more than 30% of our accounts were dormant from people who had disappeared during the Gulf War. Some accounts were very large. We charged a monthly dormancy fee until the money disappeared but if somebody showed up to claim the balance we would hand it over straight away. Sadly claimants were rare.

Jerry Atrick · Post by **Jerry Atrick** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 11:51 am

chinesetakeaway wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:07 am I was at CIMB the other day where I have term deposits to get a new card and they informed me that as I hadn’t made any deposit/withdrawals in 3 years the account had become dormant. I do have fixed deposits which pay annual interest. Anyway it’s a lot paperwork to reopen the account. Aside I asked how long would the account need to be dormant before the deposits were escheated? She asked a colleague and they said 5 years. This previously happened to my JPM brokerage account in the US. She said to stop the account becoming dormant I needed to make periodic deposit/withdrawals.

I believe that it's down to banks and/or any specific banking rules as set country by country.

I remember some outrage in my home country years and years ago over a proposal that would see the state swallow bank accounts that were over 6 years dormant

Patcan · Post by **Patcan** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 2:02 pm

My account at Cambodia Commercial bank was dormant for a year...They charged me 20$ to reopen it ...2 signed passport copies, 50$ deposit...reactivated bank card and account in less than 15 minutes...

Spigzy · Post by **Spigzy** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 2:05 pm

It is up to individual banks, but be warned that after 10 years dormancy the entire account balance goes to the National Bank of Cambodia (central bank/regulator); according to regulation anyway.

truffledog · Post by **truffledog** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 3:18 pm

samrong01 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 7:56 am This is quite surprising. Normally banks will keep an account current as long as there is "activity". Each bank can define activity as they wish but usually it just means logging on or doing balance enquiry every few months. If you were having monthly interest payments into your account then this is certainly activity but perhaps you were compounding the interest. I dont understand why there needs to be a lot of paper work to reopen. "Dormant" is not a legal status - just a status applied by bank management which can be removed at any time.

When I worked in banking in Kuwait in the 1990s more than 30% of our accounts were dormant from people who had disappeared during the Gulf War. Some accounts were very large. We charged a monthly dormancy fee until the money disappeared but if somebody showed up to claim the balance we would hand it over straight away. Sadly claimants were rare.

Switzerland was forced to pay billions of $ for "dormant" accounts of mostly jewish people that probably died during WWII. With paperless accounts nowadays there is no reason to expropriate dormant accounts. Banking/account fees will quickly zero out small accounts, big accounts should be kept forever (with yearly fees deducted). Financial institutions should be forced to keep the money in a dormant fund in case the balance is claimed even many years after depositing. Everything else is robbing customers.

SternAAlbifrons · Post by **SternAAlbifrons** » Wed Jan 06, 2021 4:08 pm

This ^^^ is just one of the reasons it is perfectly OK to rob banks.
Preferably with a pen and a few pieces of well prepared parchment
but it is one of the few occasions when using a gun is acceptable - if you really have to.

Dunderhead · Post by **Dunderhead** » Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:18 am

If you have ever read the fine print then you know that in most countries recent bail in legislation means that depositors do NOT have ownership of their deposits. Upon deposit the bank is the owner and you have lent your money to them, and please don't think that deposit insurance is a real thing, its not, its there to give you a false sense of security. At least in Cambodia they don't pretend that your deposit is insured by the government. We are rapidly entering the phase where if you don't hold it you don't own it.

Dormant accounts and escheatment

Dormant accounts and escheatment

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