Thousands of bank accounts in Richmond holding a total of $1.7 million are lying dormant and waiting to be claimed by relatives.
After ten years of inactivity, bank accounts are required to be turned over to the Bank of Canada for safekeeping for another 40 or 100 years, depending on how much is in the account.
It's unclear just how many accounts have been turned over from Richmond residents over the decades.
But a simple search of three popular Asian surnames -- Chan, Lee and Wong -- into the database holding the Richmond account details threw up more than 200 results.
There are 98 Chans in the system from Richmond, with an account belonging to Ben Sze Chan holding more than $46,000.
The account holder's last known address was 9131 Maple Place and the account was last used on Dec. 8, 1997.
An account in the name of Feng-Hua Lee, of Lancing Road, was among the 56 Lees in the database.
Lee has a tidy little $9,500 sitting waiting to be claimed in a file that was last activated on New Year's Eve, 1999.
While Kwok Lam Wong, last address Pearl Court, was one of 66 Wongs in the system and has $4,370 unclaimed after last using the account on February 1997.
If you can prove any of the accounts on the database are yours or you're an heir to the account holder, you are encouraged to get in touch with the Bank of Canada to claim the cash.
An astonishing 1.1 million dormant bank accounts have been transferred to the Bank of Canada over the years.
In B.C. alone, there are nearly 60,000 unclaimed bank accounts containing a combined total of $48 million.
Go online to vancouversun.com/unclaimedbalances/ and you can search a database of all 60,000 unclaimed B.C. accounts.
