Banks publish names of abandoned accounts

By Lakwimashi Perera

Commercial banks last week began publishing the names of all those who fall into the category of “abandoned” or “dead” bank accounts, in line with the requirements of the Banking Act.

The Act defines abandoned property as any account not in operation for the last 10 years and requires such accounts to be reported to the Central Bank under Sections 72 to 76.

Upali De Silva, Secretary General of the Sri Lanka Banks’ Association, said by law the names and other relevant information of such accounts have to be published within 30 days of reporting to the Central Bank. He said that after consultations with the Central Bank, it was decided to limit the information being published to the name of the account holder and the type of account.

HSBC and NDB took out full page advertisements in daily newspapers last week, publishing names and types of account of 617 account holders and 402 account holders, respectively.

In the advertisements the banks went on to state that until such time as they are instructed to transfer funds lying to the credit of the accounts to a Special Account with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, customers have the option of reviving their accounts if they so wish to.