Unclaimed assets include assets in bank accounts, life insurance policies, and salary accounts, which recorded no transactions for some time due to debilitating illnesses, relocations, deaths, and other life events affecting the owners. 

The total value of unclaimed financial assets lodged by various South African financial institutions amounts to almost 90 billion rands (US$5 billion), the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) announced last Wednesday, September 21.

Almost half of those assets are salary accounts lodged in pension funds while 38 percent are lodged in collective investment schemes (CIS) and life insurance companies, the source added.

Central securities depositories disclosed unclaimed assets of 4.5 billion rands belonging to 391,000 account holders, while five banks that cooperated with the FSCA reported 5.7 million dormant accounts with assets totaling ZAR3.36 billion. 

Unclaimed assets include assets in bank accounts, life insurance policies, and salary accounts, which recorded no transactions for some time before being branded inactive. The money involved has not been recovered by their owners or heirs.