THE Halifax today launched a bid to reunite 25,000 people with forgotten accounts.Britain's biggest savings provider has commissioned information services group Experian to try to track down contact details for 25,000 customers with dormant savings accounts whose addresses are out of date.

THE Halifax today launched a bid to reunite 25,000 people with forgotten accounts.

Halifax, which is Britain's biggest savings provider, has commissioned information services group Experian to try to track down contact details for 25,000 customers with dormant savings accounts whose addresses are out of date.

The group said it would meet the cost of locating the customers being traced by Experian, who have an average of £273 each sitting in forgotten accounts.

The move is part of a drive by Halifax to reunite people with forgotten savings ahead of 2009, when the Government's unclaimed assets scheme comes into force.

Under the scheme the Government will use the money in dormant accounts for community projects, although people will never lose their right to reclaim their cash.

Halifax launched an advertising campaign in March 2007 when it identified 110,000 accounts with balances totalling £44 million as being dormant.

Since then the group has reunited customers with more than £14 million, with over 5,000 account holders who either contacted it or were traced, getting an average of £2,500 each.

Last week the banking industry launched a website to help reunite people with money in dormant accounts.

The site, www.mylostaccount.org.uk, brings together for the first time information on dormant accounts held with banks, building societies and National Savings and Investments.

It is estimated that there is currently between £250 million and £350 million in dormant bank accounts, with a further £150 million in building society ones, while NS&I is sitting on around £466 million of unclaimed cash, rising to £1.02 billion once Premium Bond prizes are included.