The Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority has partnered with banks through the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) in a month-long campaign to enhance public awareness. The campaign will run throughout October as the financial sector prepares for the first year of formal reporting of unclaimed assests to the regulator launched a fortnight ago.
The Unclaimed Financial Assets (UFA) Awareness month targets financial institutions, microfinance institutions, and stockbrokers among other organisations holding unclaimed cash, cheques, interests and wages.
KBA Chief Executive Officer Habil Olaka said their partnership targets re-uniting customers with their unclaimed assets, transfer of the unclaimed assets to the authority and to formalise the industry for compliance. Kenya Bankers Association has injected Ksh3 million towards the campaign.
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“Currently banks are at the forefront of implementing the new requirements and we expect the industry will improve in implementation now that there are formal reporting structures,” Mr Olaka added.
Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority says it has so far received Ksh. 3.4 billion worth of unclaimed assets value. According to UFAA Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Kellen Kariuki, holders of unclaimed assets bear the responsibility of reunifying the assets with their rightful claimants.
Assets covered by the Unclaimed Financial Assets Act, of 2011 include bank cash balances, cheques, insurance policies, utility deposits, court awards and credit or safe deposits boxes abandoned for between two to five years. The authority says it is facing the uphill task of reuniting the money with the beneficiaries because in the past, most people only left postal addresses.
The Authority unveiled its strategic plan and now waits the gazettement of regulations to pave way for payment of the assets. The Kenya Bankers Association remitted 62% of the KSh3.4 billion held in the trust fund account at the Central Bank.
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