Bank’s letters to customer did not constitute ‘account owner activity’ under Act

Categories:

Bank accounts, Bank decisions,

Summary:

Paula had a cheque account with the bank. In 2013, she moved to Australia. Before she left, she updated her postal and emails addresses with the bank. Paula forgot about the money in her non-interest-bearing cheque account. In 2025, after she returned to New Zealand, she visited a branch and became aware $10,800 had been in the account for several years.

Published:

October 2025

She complained that the bank had not made reasonable efforts to contact her under section 5b of the Unclaimed Money Act 1971, nor had it sent the money to the Inland Revenue Department as unclaimed money. She said she would have claimed the money and put it in an interest-bearing account. She claimed lost interest, as well as compensation for the inconvenience the bank had caused by failing to deal effectively with her complaint and failing to communicate clearly and effectively with her.

Our investigation

The bank said someone had deposited funds into her account in 2017, and it had also sent Paula letters in 2020. These two actions, it said, constituted “account owner’s activity” under the Act and prevented the money from being declared unclaimed. The bank said it could not therefore begin the unclaimed money process under the Act. However, we questioned whether the bank’s letters to Paula constituted an activity by the account owner under the Act, and explained only Paula’s interactions with the account, and the bank, are relevant under section 4(3)(a)(i) of the Act. In response, it offered Paula compensation for lost interest and for the inconvenience it had caused.