Dormant Assets Act 2022 coming into force on 6 June

Update

On 18 July 2022, the FCA published Handbook Instrument FCA 2022/30.

This makes changes to the FCA’s rules to ensure that they capture the expansion of the Dormant Asset Scheme to include insurance and pensions assets.

The changes come into effect on 1 August 2022.

Although the Dormant Assets Act 2022 (the Act) received the Royal Assent in February 2022 and was published the following month, its provisions would not come into force until a date set out in a separate piece of secondary legislation.

On 24 May 2022, Dormant Assets Act 2022 (Commencement) Regulations 2022 was published, bringing the Act into force from 6 June 2022 (‘in so far as it is not already in force’).

As our earlier articles – here and here - explain, the Act expands the existing dormant assets scheme to include the insurance, pensions, investment and wealth management, and securities sectors.

This is expected to unlock a further £880 million of dormant assets – these are accounts that have been open but unused for at least 15 years and with which the provider has been unable to reunite the owner.