September 16, 2026 · 3 min read
If you ever had a Canadian bank account and stopped using it, the money may no longer be sitting at the bank. Accounts left inactive for 10 years at federally regulated banks are transferred to the Bank of Canada, which lists them in a free public registry you can search by name at unclaimedproperties.bankofcanada.ca.
The Bank of Canada keeps a registry of unclaimed balances. These are bank accounts that were left inactive for 10 years at federally regulated banks and then transferred to the Bank of Canada.
So the money is not lost. It has moved from the bank that held it to a central registry, and the registry is public and searchable by name.
This is not a lawsuit or a class action settlement, where a court approves a payout to a group of people who were affected by something. It is simply your own money, held in one place until someone comes looking for it.
The registry is worth a search for anyone who may have had a Canadian bank account go dormant. That covers more people than you might think: an old chequing account from a city you moved away from, a savings account opened for a job that ended, an account belonging to a relative whose affairs you are sorting out.
Search by your name, and search your past names too. Names change through marriage, divorce and legal name changes, and an old account may still be recorded under the name you used at the time.
The Bank of Canada reports roughly 3.4 million dormant accounts. That figure gives a sense of the scale of the registry, not of what any one person would find. Finding a matching name is not the same as the balance being yours.
The registry is run by the Bank of Canada and covers Canada. The accounts in it come from federally regulated banks, which is why the balances end up with the central bank rather than with a provincial office.
Because the Bank of Canada runs it, you are dealing with a public institution directly. There is no middle step and no one you need to go through.
Go to unclaimedproperties.bankofcanada.ca and search the registry by name. Searching the registry is free, and it is a public search, so you can do it yourself.
If a result looks like it could be yours, the registry site sets out its own process for what to do next. Follow the steps described there rather than anything you read secondhand, including here. Details about what is required, and how the Bank of Canada handles a request, come from the Bank of Canada itself.
Be careful with anyone who contacts you offering to recover an unclaimed balance on your behalf. The registry is public and you can search it under your own name without help.
A search result is a starting point. Whether a listed balance belongs to you is decided by the Bank of Canada through its own process, not by a name matching on a screen.
If nothing comes up, that is a real answer too. It means the registry does not list a dormant balance under the name you searched, and you can stop wondering.
Search the official Bank of Canada unclaimed balances registry →
Uncashed CRA cheques, and how to check whether one is yours →
Every settlement open for claims in Canada and the US →
Bank accounts left inactive for 10 years at federally regulated banks are transferred to the Bank of Canada. From there the balance is listed in the public unclaimed balances registry, searchable by name.
No. The Bank of Canada runs a free public registry at unclaimedproperties.bankofcanada.ca and you can search it by name yourself. You do not need to pay a service to look on your behalf.
The registry site explains its own process for what to do when you find a possible match. The Bank of Canada decides whether a listed balance is yours, so follow the steps set out on unclaimedproperties.bankofcanada.ca.
Yes. The registry lists balances under the name recorded on the account, so search your current name and any past names you used when the account might have been open.
PayUpBro is not a law firm and never files a claim for you. This page describes publicly available settlement information; it is not legal advice. Whether you may be eligible in any settlement is decided by the court-appointed administrator, not by us.