Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

We are going a long way from the amendment but the question is how the reclaim fund is going to operate. Let us get back to basics. The customer, member or whatever has a relationship with his bank or building society and he has nothing to do with any reclaim fund—that comes later. Therefore, if a person unearths a pass book in an attic, he should go to his bank and say, ““I want my £10,000. Here’s the book. It got lost 40 years ago but here it is””. I do not see that he should be troubled with going anywhere near the reclaim fund. Surely that is why the fund exists. In one sense, the fund is an insurance policy and, in effect, the bank or building society is saying, ““We’re claiming on our insurance policy by going to the reclaim fund””.