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Gov't to take savers' unclaimed deposits
BY JULIAN RICHARDSON Assistant Business Co-ordinator [email protected]
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
GOVERNMENT has its eyes on millions of dollars from thousands of unclaimed bank accounts — some holding hundreds of thousands of dollars — to add to its coffers at the end of the year.
<span style="font-weight: bold">On Saturday, the Ministry of Finance published a list of some 3,000 depositors with accounts at Scotiabank and Citibank whose acounts have remained dormant for at least 15 years and whose balances — collectively totalling over $30 million, according to Business Observer estimates — will be acquired by the Government if left unclaimed at the end of the year.</span>
Under Jamaican law, the balances in deposit accounts held at commercial banks, merchant banks or building societies, which has had no activity for 15 or more years, become part of the revenues of the Government. However, the Banking Act requires that a notification of the dormant accounts and the pending transfer of its balances to the Government be published in a national newspaper at least four times over the period of one year before this can occur.
In the recently published list, unclaimed bank balances ranged from $500.42 for Imolyn Ramsay from Cambridge, St James to $906,776.55 belonging to a Theophilus Vassell with a Birmingham, England address. The last transaction on Ramsay's account was February 5, 1993.
Other sizable unclaimed balances include $774,239 belonging to a Derrrick Hart from Mandeville and $742, 744.65 for Sanguinette O Rodney, who has a New York address. Both accounts have been inactive since September 1994.
Despite being inactive, the accounts continue to earn interest. Also, account-holders are able to re-access their forgotten cash within 15 years of it being acquired by Government if they can satisfactorily establish a claim to the funds to the Accountant General, according to the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ).
Local commercial banks held $381.6 billion in deposits up to May, according to data published by the BOJ. Of this amount, $191 billion or 50 per cent were savings deposits, while $100.8 billion or 26 per cent were demand deposits.
BY JULIAN RICHARDSON Assistant Business Co-ordinator [email protected]
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
GOVERNMENT has its eyes on millions of dollars from thousands of unclaimed bank accounts — some holding hundreds of thousands of dollars — to add to its coffers at the end of the year.
<span style="font-weight: bold">On Saturday, the Ministry of Finance published a list of some 3,000 depositors with accounts at Scotiabank and Citibank whose acounts have remained dormant for at least 15 years and whose balances — collectively totalling over $30 million, according to Business Observer estimates — will be acquired by the Government if left unclaimed at the end of the year.</span>
Under Jamaican law, the balances in deposit accounts held at commercial banks, merchant banks or building societies, which has had no activity for 15 or more years, become part of the revenues of the Government. However, the Banking Act requires that a notification of the dormant accounts and the pending transfer of its balances to the Government be published in a national newspaper at least four times over the period of one year before this can occur.
In the recently published list, unclaimed bank balances ranged from $500.42 for Imolyn Ramsay from Cambridge, St James to $906,776.55 belonging to a Theophilus Vassell with a Birmingham, England address. The last transaction on Ramsay's account was February 5, 1993.
Other sizable unclaimed balances include $774,239 belonging to a Derrrick Hart from Mandeville and $742, 744.65 for Sanguinette O Rodney, who has a New York address. Both accounts have been inactive since September 1994.
Despite being inactive, the accounts continue to earn interest. Also, account-holders are able to re-access their forgotten cash within 15 years of it being acquired by Government if they can satisfactorily establish a claim to the funds to the Accountant General, according to the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ).
Local commercial banks held $381.6 billion in deposits up to May, according to data published by the BOJ. Of this amount, $191 billion or 50 per cent were savings deposits, while $100.8 billion or 26 per cent were demand deposits.