Amid rising concerns about inactive financial assets, a recent session of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance revealed a startling discovery.
A significant portion of Pakistan’s wealth—an astonishing Rs97 billion—is currently sitting forgotten in dormant bank accounts across the country.
In a recent meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, it was disclosed that Pakistani citizens have forgotten about a staggering Rs97 billion lying dormant in their bank accounts.
This large sum is reportedly spread across 10.4 million temporarily closed accounts in various banks nationwide.
The meeting, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwala, highlighted that these accounts have been inactive for a decade. Officials from the State Bank of Pakistan informed the committee about the existence of these funds, noting that many account holders appear to have lost track of the money in their accounts.
During the briefing, it was proposed to extend the current 10-year period for considering such accounts permanently closed to 15 years. Under existing regulations, if an account remains inactive for 10 years and the account holder does not respond to three notices, the funds are transferred to the State Bank.
Interestingly, despite a decade of dormancy, millions of account holders still approach banks to reactivate their accounts. This trend highlights the need for a flexible approach to account reactivation.
The committee approved the State Bank’s proposal to reactivate temporarily closed accounts.