"Critics rightly argue that the new legislation offers no benefit for customers, while the government reaps all the upside."
this is categorically incorrect, although pretty much in line with how these rules have been misreported by the media
money is only transferred if the bank is unable to contact the account holder after 3 years of inactivity - the easy fix is to simply make a $1 transaction, but not absolutely necessary (if dealing with trust accounts etc)
benefits for the customers (of genuinely lost accounts) once transferred include:
- funds will be easy to track down in a central register (the same way that lost super is now)
- funds will generate interest at the CPI (better than the nil rate applying to a lot of low balance savings accounts)
