Using data compiled from its Mail Redirection service over the past 16 years, Royal Mail has been testing its dormant account tracing service with a number of financial companies, with a success rate of up to 60%.
Leonora Corden, Royal Mail's head of market development, said: "People moving home without telling their financial provider is one of the key reasons for an account or investment becoming dormant and our unique information on people who have moved home over the past 16 years helps us identify them."
The Commission of Unclaimed Assets has launched a comprehensive campaign to reunite owners of dormant accounts with their money. This follows the Economic Secretary's proposal to release unclaimed capital from dormant accounts to a newly created social investment bank, which is charged with stepping up the fight against poverty and social exclusion. There is currently an estimated £15bn in dormant accounts across the UK.
Commenting on the campaign, Corden said: "Royal Mail will be actively talking to financial organisations over the coming weeks to explain exactly how we can help them meet The Commission of Unclaimed Assets' challenge. We are very confident, as a result of recent rigorous testing, that we can help banks and building societies identify customers that other trace mechanisms can't."