Biznes Fakty
They will check if you are alive. New government plans
In cases of inactivity lasting five years, banks will be required to verify if the account holder is deceased, as per the project’s guidelines published in the government’s legislative and programmatic work list.
This relates to the proposed changes in the Banking Law and the Population Registration Act. According to the description, the amendment aims to expedite the closure of so-called dormant accounts and ease access to funds for heirs, while also mitigating the risk of payments being made to unauthorized individuals.
Banks will verify your status
The project stipulates that if there has been no activity recorded over the last five years following the last transaction related to the account, the bank will be required to check the PESEL register to ascertain whether the account holder is still alive.
If the account holder is found to be deceased, the bank will then gather information regarding the date of death, which will enable the initiation of the process for terminating the account agreement and disbursing funds to the rightful beneficiaries.
Under the proposed regulations, a bank will be exempt from requesting data from the PESEL register if the client maintains multiple accounts, with at least one account having been active in the previous five years. This rule will similarly apply to accounts that were opened for a specific term. The project also suggests the streamlining of reporting processes, relieving banks from the obligation to provide aggregate data on expired or terminated accounts for which the documentation retention period has lapsed.
