We have a customer who has asked us to help locate money she belives is due her. In 2002, she opened a $2,000 CD at a bank which has since been bought out twice. No one at the current bank can find any information about her CD. The transaction was in North Carolina. She checked NC State's abandoned property division, and there is no record of it having been turned in. Our thought is to have her send a letter to the CFPB to see if they can help. Are there any other opininons on what, if anything else, we could do?

Our thought is to have her send a letter to the CFPB to see if they can help.

How would they do this? Only the acquiring institution can answer that question. If they have no record, the money was either escheated or the CD was previously cashed.

Why is she suddenly looking for this money after 12 years?

is your bank one of the acquiring banks? if not, i think your best bet is saying "sorry, can't help." Send her to the NC state banking commission and let her start there.

She came into one of our customer service reps and said someone had told her to ask for the bank's compliance officer. The Compliance Officer could send a letter to the OCC about the missing CD. We're not one the banks involved, but we thought at least we could put her in touch with the CFPB. Great idea about the NC State Banking Commission.

Good; use a mechanism where it's clear that you have stepped out of the conversation completely. Regardless of what "someone told her," your bank is simply not involved.

Eschete is to the state where the account holder was last domiciled. Have her check abandoned properties in any state that she had lived from 2002. (EG, if a last known address was TN when escheted, it should have gone to Tennessee.)