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Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [Lords]

The hon. Lady is right that we should do everything possible to reunite the money with the original account holder, whether it be a charity, an individual or whatever. That is an important part of the legislation. Customers always have the right to reclaim their money, but we also think it important to make a concerted effort to reunite account holders with their lost money before the scheme comes into operation. We have encouraged the financial services to do that and we welcome the launch by the British Banking Association, the Building Societies Association and National Savings & Investments of the ““mylostaccount”” website in January this year. More than 175,000 people have already used this free cross-industry service to reunite themselves with tens of millions of pounds. It is an important part of the scheme.