Banks: how they benefit from 5 billion euros on inactive accounts

Reading time survey: 3 min reserved for subscribers Banking groups are home to 5 billion dormant assets, forgotten by their holders. A jackpot that some seem little in a hurry to return.

Save save Receive banking alerts to dopy purchasing power? Let’s not be Rosse with François Bayrou, who has nothing against an idea allowing him to extend his lease in Matignon. And let us reveal a very simple measure: ask the French to demand the approximately 5 billion euros to which they are entitled. And who sleep, most often without fruitful, on their inactive bank accounts. Understand those that have not recorded any movement for at least a year in the case of current accounts, and for at least five years for savings products such as booklet A or the housing savings plan. So many envelopes of which, in the long run, we can assume that they have been forgotten by their holders. Or, in the case of poorly managed successions, ignored by the beneficiaries of the deceased. The phenomenon is not new and constitutes a boon for banks, who do not deprive themselves, with regard to current accounts, to take costs of inactivity, often up to the legal ceiling of 30 euros per year. Even though these supports do not require, by definition, no management effort! To help French people recover this money, the legislator has resolved to adopt a series of measures, which oblige establishments to cross their customer files each year with the register of deceased, and to inform holders of such accounts of the consequences of inactivity. Coming into force in 2016, this law, known as the Eckert law, also requires them to publish the number of inactive accounts, as well as the amount of the assets they contain. Read also: Bank costs: here is how much you will pay in 2025, according to your bank more than 6 million banking products await their beneficiaries © Capital (1) Evolution between the end of 2018 and end of 2023. (2) 13 Caisses constituting the network, including Casden and Bred. (3) 15 boxes constituting the network. (4) 36 boxes constituting the network. (5) Including Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale (13 boxes), Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne, Crédit Mutuel Maine-Anjou Basse-Normandie, Crédit Mutuel Océan, and Crédit Mutuel du Sud-Ouest. ND: Not available, the 2018 figures being missing to calculate the evolution or the comparative perimeter not being exactly the same. Figures at the end of 2024 for Boursobank, Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne, and Crédit Mutuel du Sud-Ouest.5 billion euros in dormant assets after ten years after the entry into force of the text, did the situation improve? We are entitled to doubt it, according to our exclusive pointing, made on the basis of figures in the sector at the end of 2023. As shown in our table below, the approximately 90 establishments that we have identified contains more than 6.3 million forgotten accounts, and therefore fed up to 5 billion euros. It is, apparently, less than during our last survey, carried out at the end of 2018, on a perimeter not include Crédit Mutuel. On this date, we had indeed counted 6 billion inactive assets. But this decrease of 1 billion is mainly due to the efforts of a handful of banks, at the forefront of which Société Générale, which has reduced its stock by 777 million euros in five years! Let us also point out the postal bank: if it has erased only 117 million euros of inactive money over the period, the number of dormant accounts is in withdrawal of 27%, or 650,000. Many of them correspond to booklet A, with little savings. >> Our service – make up to 300 euros in savings per year thanks to our comparator of banks mutual and in line networks do not deserve these praise, especially mutual banks. Thus at Crédit Agricole, dormant funds increased by 77%, to more than half a billion euros. Increases also on the BPCE side, with + 34% for popular banks, and + 11% for savings boxes. Even if these two networks record, in parallel, a surprising decrease in the number of inactive accounts. Another worrying phenomenon: while they have existed for twenty years, and their customers are constantly growing, online banks are also faced with this problem. At the end of 2024, Boursobank housed more than 60 million euros in dormant assets, out of around 860,000 accounts. It is true that the establishment absorbed, in 2022, its competitor ING Direct. As for Fortuneo, his forgotten accounts have doubled in five years, at 56,000 units. For the households concerned, the issues are not thin. For example, ancient or current CIC customers have every interest in wondering: if the bank only counts 35,000 inactive accounts, there are more than 2,000 euros on average! Let us also remember that this money does not sleep forever in the bank. The Eckert law imposes on establishments, after ten years of inactivity (three years in the event of death noted), to switch these funds to the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC). In 2023 alone, these transfers reached 334 million euros. In this case, a Tour on Ciclade is recommended: this online platform makes it possible to seek the accounts already transferred, for a period of twenty years (beyond, they become property of the State). On average, for each satisfied request, nearly 1,326 euros are returned to their holders, according to the Moneyvox site. And nearly 5 billion assets are already waiting for them, overall. Receive our latest news each week, the flagship items to support your personal finances. (tagstotranslate) Banks

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