Federal government hopes to claim €500 million from dormant bank accounts

Belgium’s federal government wants to use funds from dormant bank accounts to balance its 2026 budget.

The deadlines for recovering these assets would be shortened from 30 days to 10 days in order to quickly mobilise almost €500 million from dormant accounts, De Tijd reports.

The revenues would come in particular from an accelerated seizure of dormant money. Finance minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) wants to reduce the limitation period to 10 years for missing beneficiaries and five years for inactive accounts.

Since 2008, a law has required banks to transfer dormant assets to the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC). Currently, €815 million in dormant money is held there, spread across 674,961 accounts and contracts.