Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) CEO Kellen Kariuki said that the baseline study will soon begin and will be completed within one year.
Ten years ago, a task force was appointed by the government to examine the status of unclaimed financial assets in the country.
The body recommended the introduction of a legal and regulatory framework to govern unclaimed financial assets in Kenya. The UFAA Act was endorsed in 2011 while the regulations to operationalize the law were put in place early this year.
UFAA has so far received 60 million U.S. dollars from the holders of unclaimed financial assets. Kariuki said that approximately 65 percent of the funds was held by banks.
UFAA have commenced the process of paying over 1,700 claims totaling approximately 420,000 U.S. dollars.
“The remainder of the claims require beneficiaries to submit more supporting documents to the authority to authenticate ownership,” he said.
The CEO said that all holders of unclaimed financial assets will also be audited to ensure that they have provided the correct information.
The auditing will be conducted jointly by the financial sector regulators such the Central Bank of Kenya.
Chairman UFAA Katwa Kigen said that the UFAA regulations will guide holders of unclaimed financial assets on the methods of surrendering and filing reports on the assets.
He said that the regulations also oblige the authority to make available to the public information that will facilitate the reunification of unclaimed assets with their owners and beneficiaries.
The authority shall soon be rolling out an education and awareness campaign to sensitize members of the public.
“It is envisaged that the campaign shall help to deepen compliance on the part of holders and to build capacity on the part of claimants to lodge claims for assets in our custody,” Kigen said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
