Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 42: 42: Clause 10, page 6, line 34, at end insert— ““( ) For the purposes of subsection (1) an account is to be treated as remaining open where it is closed otherwise than on the instructions of the holder of the account.”” The noble Lord said: We have been considering these issues for some time, but as this is a government amendment I need to put it in context. Clause 10 defines when an account will be regarded as dormant. Meeting that definition makes an account eligible for transfer to the scheme. An account will be regarded as dormant if it has been opened for 15 years without any customer-initiated transactions occurring during that time. This technical amendment means that an account is treated as being in existence for the purposes of the scheme unless it has been closed on the instructions of the account holder. This does not change how the scheme is intended to operate and the amendment’s only purpose is to provide additional clarification. It clarifies that accounts and institutions may have closed for operational reasons, but where the money is still owed to the customer, they are eligible for inclusion in the scheme after 15 years if there have been no customer transactions. Institutions may close accounts under the account’s terms and conditions or through building society rules if the account holder has been inactive or if the institution no longer has the account holder’s current address. This is to protect the account from fraud. This technical amendment clarifies that such accounts are eligible for the scheme when they otherwise meet the definition of a dormant account specified in the Bill. I beg to move.