• 19.6 million people in the UK have become disconnected from financial services products and are missing out on dormant or unclaimed money

• 44% of UK adults think they may have a lost or dormant account

• Third (31%) of those who may have lost assets haven’t tracked them down as they don’t know how to or where to start

Gretel, the free online hub which reunites consumers with lost and dormant accounts across the entire financial service industry goes live today. New research1 from Gretel highlights that almost half (44%) of all UK adults think they may have a lost or dormant account, yet only 13% have ever tried to track them down.

The Gretel dashboard is being launched at a crucial time for many people in the UK who face increasing costs and a squeeze on household spending. There are nearly 20 million2 customer accounts with a combined value of over £50bn that have been lost or forgotten by their rightful owners, in the UK alone. This includes £37 billion in pensions, £5.3 billion in lost investments and shares and £2.2 billion in lost CTFs. (table for full details)

Duncan Stevens, Chief Executive of Gretel said: “Gretel is a huge step forwards in solving the longstanding issue of dormant assets in financial services. Knowing the scale of what Gretel can achieve for people in the UK and how we can help people reconnect with their lost savings, pensions and bank accounts at this time. We are transforming a process that can take up to three months into three minutes and I am delighted that we have a chance to make a difference in people’s lives.”

OneFamily, the UK’s largest child trust fund (CTF) provider, is one of the first companies to sign-up to the new centralised hub. Gretel has also been chosen by the Investment Association (IA) to power its new Unclaimed Assets Portal. Currently the IA fields regular enquiries from people hoping to find a way to track down a lost investment and this move by the trade body hopes to provide a fast, free and effective solution to reunite consumers with millions in lost investments.

OneFamily’s Head of Investments, Paul Bridgwater said: “If a OneFamily CTF isn’t claimed when the young person reaches 18, the money continues to be held safely with us and receives the benefits of the fund until the young person gets in touch. “We’re making substantial efforts in reuniting people with their money, so we’re pleased to be working in partnership with Gretel, which is an invaluable tool for young people looking for their CTF. What’s great is that it’s entirely free and is easy for them to use.”

Chris Cummings, Chief Executive, the Investment Association, said: “We are excited to be partnering with Gretel to help our members re-unite customers with their savings. We’re urging anyone who is worried they have lost track of their investments throughout the years to register to the platform.”

Gretel’s new technology helps solve the challenge of reuniting forgotten funds with their rightful owners and simplifies what used to be a long and complicated process.

Duncan Stevens, Chief Executive of Gretel continued. “At a time when the cost of living in the UK is at its highest level in 30 years, getting the £50 billion of dormant, lost and unclaimed money from savings, investments and pensions back into the hands of the consumer, where it belongs, is more important than ever before. Gretel research shows that consumers have historically faced an array of barriers relating to cost, complexity and mis-communication when it comes to tracking down lost accounts; Gretel will help them overcome these hurdles and finally get back what is rightfully theirs.”

Despite the average value of a lost investment being over £2,800, a lost pension policy can typically be even greater averaging more than £23,000 in value, one in four (24%) consumers are of the view that the likely monetary value of any lost accounts will be too low to make a search worthwhile, rising to one in three (34%) of those aged 55+. Gretel’s new research also found that of the 87% of consumers that have never tried to track down a lost or dormant account:

• Almost a third (31%) haven’t tried to find them because they didn’t know how to do it or where to start - up from 26% in 2020

• One in five (19%), rising to 25% of those aged 18-34, didn’t even known they could search for lost and dormant accounts

• 15% assumed it was so long since they lost track of their account/money that it was no longer theirs anyway

• One in ten (10%) think the process to track down lost money is too costly, rising to 17% among those aged 18-34 years

Gretel is a free online hub that uses intelligent technology to reconnect consumers with lost money in less than three minutes and then help them reclaim it. Uniquely, once a customer has signed up with Gretel, the service will keep working for them to constantly look for lost monies and flag any new accounts as and when they are identified. Gretel is the only service that will cover the entire financial services industry.

There are numerous regulatory drivers around customer treatment and the obligations on financial services companies to make comprehensive efforts to stay engaged with their customers. By creating a centralised hub where consumers can search for lost monies at no cost, the launch of Gretel supports these regulatory requirements and in addition, Gretel has been architected to address the recommendations of the Government’s Independent Commission on Dormant Assets. The Dormant Assets Scheme has recently received Royal Assent to allow it to expand beyond retail banking to include assets from the insurance, pensions, investment and wealth management, and securities sectors.

Consumers can register with Gretel and search for lost and dormant accounts at www.gretel.co.uk.