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Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

The definitions of dormancy are limited because they mean that a customer sees those resources going into the reclaim fund. They are minimalist definitions. The bank can follow its normal procedures for reaching a judgment on whether an account is dormant in the circumstances that the noble Baroness identified. She said that if the other person survived or relented on his obduracy in his obstruction of the account and sought to activate it, it might take some time to reclaim it from the fund. By definition, time has already elapsed, otherwise the abuse would not be as the noble Baroness defined it, with two account holders who cannot agree to activate an account at any stage. I take it that that is not meant to happen over a very short period of time but over a considerable period of time. Secondly, I maintain again that the banks can take this matter into account if the other joint account holder makes a submission to the bank. I know that that does not fall within the law. We have not tried to construct the law with a precise, exclusive definition of dormancy because, if we sought to do so, we would have a Bill as long as some of our greatest pieces of legislation. The banks are intending to operate this scheme in a manner consistent with the Banking Code, under which they are used to having to exercise judgment on issues of flexibility. The noble Baroness gave the example of a joint account holder making a submission and illustrating why he could not get access to the account or effect it in any way, shape or form, although he had an interest in it, but it would be a very odd banking judgment if that was regarded as not being a declaration of activity.