All financial sectors, including banks, securities firms, insurance companies, savings banks, and mutual financial institutions, will now disclose their dormant asset refund performance on an individual company basis.

The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service announced today (September 28) that they have decided to provide inquiry and refund services so that financial consumers can easily check and reclaim their forgotten dormant assets.

Dormant assets refer to deposits or insurance claims for which the statute of limitations has expired under the law.

According to the FSC, the balance of dormant assets stood at 1.5 trillion won as of the end of last year.

From 2022 to 2024, the balance of dormant assets consistently maintained the level of 1.4 trillion to 1.6 trillion won.

Authorities judged that "as the balance of dormant asset has remained at a similar level for several years, more active management and refund efforts are necessary."

Accordingly, the authorities decided to disclose dormant asset refund amounts, dormant asset balances, and long-term dormant account balances annually through the websites of associations and central federations across each financial sector.

Information for the previous year must be disclosed on an individual financial company basis by the end of March every year.

Information such as this year's dormant asset refund performance will be disclosed starting next year.

In addition, the Financial Consumer Protection Best Practice Guidelines of each financial sector's association will be revised to reflect related matters such as setting management targets for dormant assets, promoting refunds, and internal reporting.

In particular, financial companies will be required to set and operate their own management targets to prevent and reduce the occurrence of dormant assets tailored to the characteristics of their sector and individual companies.

Each sector's association plans to revise the financial consumer protection best practices by the end of the year and pursue the creation of new menus and systems within their websites to disclose refund performances.

(Photo: Yonhap News)