Good News for Kenya
The Unclaimed Financial Assets Act (2011) legislation that was passed last
December in Kenya is now in force…as the requirement to pass unclaimed assets forward to the government is now in force.
An editorial this week in the Standard Digital News today had this to say:
“Besides holding the assets in trust until
beneficiaries are identified, the authority is also expected to help hedge
the crippling official bureaucracy that has over the years characterized
the process of reclaiming of these assets. For long, would-be beneficiaries —
mostly widows and orphans — have been at the mercy of rent seekers and
corruption tsars as they moved from one office to another in an endless chase
of their rightful entitlements. A specific Authority to deal with these assets
is commendable and long overdue”
Here's the article from Standard Digital News
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000069705&pageNo=2&story_title=
Standard Digital News Thursday Nov 1 2012 by Jackson Okoth
All unclaimed dividends, bankers’ cheques and cash deposits lying within
the bank vaults will now be passed on to the Unclaimed Financial Assets
Authority.
Pensions, cash held up within the mobile cash transfer system and safe
deposit boxes for which rental fees has remained unpaid for more than two years
will also be passed on to the Authority from today (November 1, 2012).
All institutions are now required to prepare a report on the various
unclaimed financial instruments in their possession,” said Vincent Kimosop,
Executive Director of International Institute of Legislative Affairs. “This
inventory is to be handed over to the Authority when it is formed.”
In the last month, listed companies and commercial banks have been putting
out advertisements calling on their customers and shareholders to make claims
on dormant assets, before the October 31 deadline.
Any claims made after this deadline will now be forwarded to the Authority.
Although this authority is not yet in place, it is a legal obligation for all
affected institutions to comply with these timelines.
Make report
Section 20, Part 3 of the Unclaimed Financial Assets Act requires that a
person holding assets presumed abandoned and subject to the custody of the
Authority as unclaimed assets under this Act shall make a report concerning the
assets to the Authority.
This report shall be filed on or before the first day of November of each
year. Where the Authority is satisfied that a person is the owner of all or
part of the assets that became unclaimed assets and paid into the Unclaimed
Assets Trust Fund, the Authority may pay out to the owner an amount equal to
the value of those assets or part of it as the case may be.
Expectations are that the Finance Minister will soon gazette the names of
those appointed to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority.
It is still unclear how much lies unclaimed at the Nairobi Securities
Exchange, which has been in operation for more than 50 years.
There are also dormant bank accounts, insurance policies, pension funds,
real estate, land and moveable assets that lay unclaimed, either because their
owners have passed on or inheritors have no knowledge of their existence.
When the Authority is established, it will provide legal framework for the
Government to handle unclaimed assets to be passed on to rightful beneficiaries.
A number of institutions holding unclaimed dividends and cash in the account
include commercial banks, which have in recent months been running
advertisements calling on those who own the idle assets to come forward before
they are declared unclaimed, and forwarded to the Authority.
Custody
President Kibaki signed the Unclaimed Financial Assets Act (2011) into law
in December last year. The law allows for the dealing and the reporting of
unclaimed assets. It also establishes the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority
and the Unclaimed Financial Assets Trust Fund.
Under the new law, all unclaimed assets would be placed in the custody of
the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority.
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