In our state, a bank is allowed to classify inactive/dormant accounts either by NO activity or by lost contact with the customer. Our policy defines inactive as no customer initiated activity and dormant as lost contact. We have various controls around these accounts including, restricted inquiry and file maintenance by employees, if transaction occurs-it non posts, depending on type of item, item may be returned or we attempt contact with the banker/customer to determine if we should post or return, supervisor must approve a change to active. About 95% of our inactive/dormant accounts are inactive only, we have their address, they receive their statements.Should our controls be loosened? Are we spending too much time controlling inactive accounts?

Each institution should determine the amount of risks they are willing to accept. We have modified our controls over time to be more flexible in this area. The dollars at risk are generally minimal.

I would restrict efforts to ensure that account owners actually do read their statements. For that I would send them positive confirmation requests, i.e. ask them to confirm that the balance appearing on the statement is correct. This could be done annually. Upon receipt of the positive confirmation, the accounts should be reclassified to active.