Scottish Widows was bought up by Lloyds TSB

Banks and building societies say they are holding about �5bn in unclaimed money.

They say the main reasons their customers do not know they may be entitled to some of the cash are that they throw paperwork away or do not tell the institutions of a change of address.

Brian Morton of the Dunfermline Building Society says there is only so much the financial institutions can do.

The demutualisation of building societies in recent years has swelled the amount of unclaimed financial assets.

Months after it gave up its mutual status, Scottish Widows still held �290m of unclaimed windfalls.

Task force

The group, which was bought up by Lloyds TSB, said last September that it had not been able to contact 80,000 people who were entitled to payments.

It set up a special task force to try to trace the missing members.

And with three other societies set to take a similar move towards demutualisation this year, the amount of forgotten funds is likely to grow.