House of Representatives
Banking Laws Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Bill 2015
Explanatory Memorandum
(Circulated by the authority of the Treasurer, the Hon J. B. Hockey MP)Where available ADIs and life insurance providers provide ASIC with the account holder's name, address that the account was established at, the account provider, and the branch where the account was established.
The figures for 2012--13 should not be used as in this year funds were collected from all accounts that had been inactive for between three and seven years.
This is due to the changes to the required period of inactivity in 2012--13.
While it takes ASIC on average 28 days to return funds to an individual there is also a delay between account holders completing the paperwork to reclaim their account and ASIC receiving this from the relevant ADI/life insurance provider.
This will not generate regulatory savings for account holders overall as movements in the AUD are anticipated to be as likely to benefit account holders as to not.
This will not generate regulatory savings for account holders overall as we have assumed that it is just as likely that an account will earn a higher interest rate while unclaimed than a lower one. This is based on the fact that many savings accounts offered by the four major banks are approximately 2.5 per cent. This is in line with forecast inflation.
This minimises the chance that a database mining tool could be used to compile a list of account holders.
APRA Life Insurance Statistics March 2014.