Banks aim to track down dormant account customersA push to reunite savers with forgotten money has stepped up a gear, as two of the UK's biggest banks, HSBC HSBC Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation HSBC Humane Society of Broward County (Florida) HSBC Humane Society of Bay County (Bay County, Michigan) and Halifax Halifax, city, Canada Halifax, city (1991 pop. 114,455), provincial capital, S central N.S., Canada, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest city in the Maritime Provinces and is one of Canada's principal ice-free Atlantic ports. , launch campaigns to put people back in touch with their cash. Accounts that have not been touched by customers for 15 years are considered dormant Latent; inactive; silent. That which is dormant is not used, asserted, or enforced. A dormant partner is a member of a partnership who has a financial interest yet is silent, in that he or she takes no control over the business. , and an estimated £250m-£350m is thought to be lying in forgotten bank accounts, with a further £150m in building society accounts and £466m in NS&I accounts. HSBC is to write to 12,000 customers with dormant accounts Noun 1. dormant account - a savings account showing no activity (other than posting interest) for some specified period; "the dormant account reverted to the state under escheat laws" savings account - a bank account that accumulates interest , and will try to track down a further 5,000 who no longer live at the addresses the bank has on file. It believes these 17,000 customers could reclaim more than £24m - an average of £1,400 per account. However, 276 of these accounts have a total balance of £9m - 40% of the total to be claimed - and 17 forgotten accounts have balances of more than £100,000. "We are planning a sustained campaign of correspondence, active tracing, advertising and publicity," said Carlos Carlos, prince of the Asturias Carlos, 1545–68, prince of the Asturias, son of Philip II of Spain and Maria of Portugal. Don Carlos, who seems to have been mentally unbalanced and subject to fits of homicidal mania, was imprisoned by his father in Wanderley, general manager of HSBC customer propositions. "We will also be conducting research into the primary causes of account dormancy Dormancy In the broadest sense, the state in which a living plant organ (seed, bud, tuber, bulb) fails to exhibit growth, even when environmental conditions are considered favorable. , which we hope will allow us - and the industry - to model accounts that are most likely to become dormant in future." Meanwhile, Halifax is trying to give £29.6m back to account holders. There are more than 25 forgotten accounts with balances of more than £50,000 and four with balances of more than £100,000. Dormant accounts are recorded on the unclaimed assets register - a database holding details of all forgotten savings and investments. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the search site mylostaccount.org.uk, which allows people to hunt down their forgotten savings, record numbers of people have been trying to trace their money. Since the site's launch in January this year around 140,000 people have submitted claims. The banks' moves come ahead of plans to transfer dormant accounts into a government fund under its unclaimed assets scheme. The money would then be used to fund community projects, although account holders will still be able to access their forgotten cash. The government has asked banks and building societies to try to reunite re·u·nite tr. & intr.v. re·u·nit·ed, re·u·nit·ing, re·u·nites To bring or come together again. reunite Verb [-niting, -nited as many customers as possible with their money before the scheme is launched. 
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