Bank fined for not passing on customers' money: how to trace lost cash

The City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, has fined high street bank Santander nearly £33m for systematically failing to distribute the assets of deceased customers to bereaved families.

The FCA said the bank failed to pass on more than £183m in cash and investment savings to rightful owners, directly affecting 40,428 customers.

The regulator concluded that the bank's bereavement process between 2013 and 2016 was not fit for purpose. The problems identified included the bank failing to trace customer accounts, meaning money was sometimes lost and not passed on, and a failure to properly monitor the bereavement process, meaning that sorting out loved ones’ affairs sometimes took far...