A UAE bank account goes dormant after three years with no customer-initiated transaction, and after five years the balance is transferred to the Central Bank. The money is still yours. Article 7.1 of the Central Bank’s Dormant Accounts and Unclaimed Funds Regulation states that the funds “remain the property of the customer, or his/her legal heirs if the customer has died.”

What happens in the period immediately after a death, before anything becomes dormant, is covered in our guide to what happens to your UAE bank account when you die.

The rules changed on 31 December 2025. Regulation C 9/2025 replaced the 2020 regime and widened the scope well beyond banks: it now also captures insurance companies and exchange houses, so an uncollected money transfer or an unclaimed insurance payout follows the same path. Most guidance still describes the repealed 2020 rules. This guide sets out the current dormancy triggers for each type of account and product, the three-month warning window, how to reclaim money at each stage, and the charge that banks are forbidden from making.

What Changed on 31 December 2025

Regulation C 9/2025 replaced the Dormant Accounts Regulation C 1/2020. Its introduction says the Central Bank “has amended the Dormant Accounts Regulation to widen the scope of application,” and it is issued under a new statute, Federal Decree-Law No. 6 of 2025 Regarding the Central Bank, Regulation of Financial Institutions and Activities, and Insurance Business.

The substantive change is who it binds. The 2020 regulation applied to Banks. The 2025 regulation applies to all Licensed Financial Institutions, and it adds two whole categories of unclaimed money that were previously outside the framework:

  • Exchange houses. Funds received by an exchange business, including money sent for onward delivery to a named beneficiary, that are made available but not collected, where the customer cannot be located, become unclaimed after one year.
  • Insurance companies. Amounts payable when a policy ends, approved claims and refunds that are never collected, and funds sitting in insurance pools without an active policy all become unclaimed after three years.

There is also a catch-all. Article 2.14 provides that funds and balances held by a licensed financial institution that do not fall into any of the named categories are treated as if they were an ordinary current or savings account, meaning the three-year clock applies to them too.

When an Account Becomes Dormant

Dormancy is assessed at customer level, not account level. Three conditions must all be met: you have no other active liability account with the same institution, your current address is not known to it, and the account has no litigation or requirements from other regulatory authorities attached to it.

That first condition is the one that protects most people without their knowing. Any correspondence from you, or activity on any other account you hold with the same institution, is treated as evidence that you are still active. A dormant savings account sitting alongside an active current account at the same bank does not make you a dormant customer.

Two further structural rules matter. Joint accounts are treated as a distinct customer, separate from the individual accounts of the joint holders, so activity in one has no effect on the other in either direction. And customers with asset accounts, meaning borrowing relationships, are excluded from the dormancy definition entirely.

Product Dormancy trigger
Savings, call or current account 3 years with no transaction and no non-financial action such as a service request or a particulars update, and no communication from you. Bank-initiated postings like interest and charges do not count.
Fixed term deposit 3 years since maturity with no renewal or claim, or where there is an auto-renewal clause, 3 years from first maturity with no communication.
Closed-ended or redeemable investment account 3 years from final maturity or redemption date, whichever is earlier. An open-ended account goes dormant when your other accounts do.
Banker’s cheque, bank draft or cashier’s order 1 year unclaimed by the beneficiary or the customer, despite the bank’s efforts to make contact.
Money left with an exchange house 1 year where funds are available but not collected and the customer cannot be located.
Insurance payouts, refunds and pool funds 3 years from when the amount became payable, or from the date the claim was made or the refund approved.
Safe deposit box Charges outstanding for more than 3 years with no reply from the tenant and no alternative arrangement.

Note the asymmetry that catches people out. A banker’s cheque or draft goes unclaimed after one year, not three. If you bought a manager’s cheque for a property deal or a visa deposit that never completed, that money is on a much shorter clock than your account balance.

The Three-Month Window Before Anything Moves

Before your money goes anywhere, the institution must try to reach you. Article 3 requires it to attempt contact through written, electronic or recorded verbal channels, to notify the issuer of any unclaimed banker’s cheque or draft, and to send a final notice to a safe deposit box tenant’s last known address. It must then wait three months for a response.

Only after those three months pass does the institution move the money to an internal “dormant accounts and unclaimed funds ledger.” Balances from unclaimed banker’s cheques, drafts and cashier’s orders go to a separate internal “unclaimed balances account.”

Safe deposit boxes cannot simply be opened. Article 3.7 requires the bank to apply to the court to appoint a person to supervise the opening and to direct what happens to the contents, or to appoint a receiver, and expressly ties that to Articles 507 and 508 of the Commercial Transactions Law, which require judicial supervision where the customer is absent or unresponsive.

What happens at five years

If an account remains dormant for five years from the date of the last transaction, the institution must transfer the net balance to the “Unclaimed Balances Account – Dormant Accounts” at the Central Bank, close the account, and preserve the documents. The same five-year rule applies to unclaimed banker’s cheques from the date of issue, to safe deposit box receivables, and to unclaimed insurance funds. Exchange houses transfer on a shorter cycle, moving funds unclaimed for three years to the Central Bank on a quarterly basis.

Two consequences follow that are worth planning around:

  • Foreign currency is converted to dirhams at transfer. Article 8.5 requires unclaimed foreign currency balances to be converted at the institution’s published customer rates before transfer, and states that customers “will be reimbursed this AED equivalent amount on reclaim.” The exchange risk after that point sits with you, and you get dirhams back, not your original currency.
  • Size does not matter. Article 8.6 requires transfer “irrespective of the size of the residual fund balance,” so a balance of a few dirhams follows exactly the same path as a large one.

Interest continues to accrue at the contractual rate up to the point of transfer, under Article 7.2. After transfer, it stops: the Central Bank retains the funds until claimed and is expressly not liable for interest, returns or profits on them.

How to Get Your Money Back

You approach the institution, not the Central Bank. Article 4 requires the customer or the legal heir to attend personally or through a legal representative and submit a claim with documentation proving identity. The institution then verifies against the original ID and pays.

The settlement deadlines are set by the regulation and differ by institution type:

Where the money sits Deadline to settle your claim
Bank or other licensed financial institution 1 month, unless there are valid reasons for delay
Exchange house 14 days, unless there are valid reasons for delay
Insurance company 1 month, unless there are valid reasons for delay

Where the funds have already gone to the Central Bank, the institution still handles the claim, but Article 8.8 provides that settlement is carried out only after it receives the relevant funds back from the Central Bank. That is why a reclaim on an older balance takes longer than the headline deadline suggests: the institution has to draw the money down first.

The charge they are not allowed to make

Article 5.3 is the provision to quote at a counter: institutions must ensure customers do not face difficulty closing a dormant account, reactivating it, or receiving eligible payments of unclaimed funds, and “no fee or charges should be levied for re-activation or closing such accounts or making claims of unclaimed funds.”

Article 7.4 reinforces it from the other direction: no debits or system-based charges may be levied on a dormant account at all, though credits received are still allowed to be deposited. A reactivation fee, a dormancy fee or a claim-processing fee on these balances is not permitted.

Reactivation itself is deliberately light. Article 4.2 lets the institution reactivate after taking a copy of your current ID, verifying it against the original and updating your profile, and expressly permits alternate channels of authentication. You should not be asked to open a new account to recover an old balance.

If You Have Left the UAE

This is where most dormant balances come from, and the sequence works against departing expats. The account stops being used, the bank has no current address abroad, the three-year clock runs, and the balance moves.

Several practical points follow from the regulation’s own wording:

  • An address the bank actually holds defeats dormancy. One of the three conditions in Article 2.1 is that the current address of the customer is not known. Updating your address before you leave, and responding to the contact attempts required by Article 3.1, keeps you out of the definition.
  • Any communication resets the position. Article 2.1 treats correspondence from the customer, or activity on any other account with the same institution, as evidence the customer is still active.
  • Institutions must run an annual review. Article 5.2 requires them to review dormant accounts and balances annually and contact customers by letter, telephone, SMS and email to advise them of the dormancy and the need to act. Keeping a working email and phone number on file is what makes that duty useful to you.
  • Closing properly is better than walking away. The full exit sequence, including which accounts to close last, is covered in our guides to closing a UAE bank account before leaving and the wider leaving the UAE checklist.

A dormant account is not the same as a frozen or blocked one. Dormancy is an inactivity classification with a defined route back; a freeze is a compliance or legal action with a different cause and a different fix, covered in our guide to a frozen UAE bank account and how to unfreeze it.

Claiming a Deceased Person’s Balance

Article 7.1 puts it beyond argument: the money remains the property of the customer or his or her legal heirs if the customer has died. Article 4.1 expressly contemplates a claim by a legal heir, and Articles 4.6 and 4.9 require exchange houses and insurance companies to accept claims from legal heirs with the appropriate legal documentation.

What the regulation does not do is decide who the heirs are. That is determined by the succession rules that apply to the estate, which differ sharply depending on whether the deceased was Muslim and whether a registered will exists. Both are covered in our guides to non-Muslim inheritance law in the UAE and registering a will. Expect the institution to ask for the succession documentation before it pays anything.

One Rule That Applies Only to Exchange Houses

Article 7.6 prohibits exchange businesses from recognising unclaimed funds as income “under any circumstances,” and requires that any unclaimed funds recognised as income in any financial year before this regulation was issued must be reversed.

That is an unusually direct provision, and it is worth knowing if you sent a remittance through a UAE exchange house that was never collected at the other end. The money was not the operator’s to keep, and the regulation now requires it to be held, transferred to the Central Bank after three years, and paid out on a valid claim within 14 days. Our guide to sending money from the UAE covers the transfer side.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long before a UAE bank account becomes dormant?

Three years. Under Article 2.2 of the Central Bank’s Dormant Accounts and Unclaimed Funds Regulation, a savings, call or current account becomes dormant after three years with no transactions and no non-financial actions such as service requests or particulars updates, and no communication from the customer. Transactions initiated by the bank, such as interest or charges, do not count. Dormancy is assessed at customer level, so an active account elsewhere in the same bank prevents it.

What happens to money in a dormant UAE account?

After the bank tries to contact you and waits three months, the balance moves to an internal dormant accounts ledger. If the account remains dormant for five years from the last transaction, the net amount is transferred to the Unclaimed Balances Account at the Central Bank and the account is closed. The money remains your property throughout, or your legal heirs’ if you have died, under Article 7.1.

Can I get money back from a dormant UAE bank account?

Yes. You or your legal heir approaches the institution, personally or through a legal representative, with documentation proving identity. The institution verifies against the original ID and pays. Banks and insurance companies must settle within one month and exchange houses within 14 days, unless there are valid reasons for delay. Where the funds have already gone to the Central Bank, settlement follows once the institution receives them back.

Do UAE banks charge a fee to reactivate a dormant account?

They are not permitted to. Article 5.3 requires institutions to ensure customers do not face difficulty closing a dormant account, reactivating it or receiving unclaimed funds, and states that no fee or charges should be levied for reactivation, closure or making a claim. Article 7.4 separately bars any debits or system-based charges on a dormant account, though credits may still be deposited.

Does the UAE dormant accounts rule apply to exchange houses and insurers?

Yes, since Regulation C 9/2025 replaced the 2020 rules on 31 December 2025 and widened the scope from banks to all licensed financial institutions. Funds left with an exchange house become unclaimed after one year where they are available but not collected and the customer cannot be located. Insurance payouts, approved claims, refunds and pool funds become unclaimed after three years.

What happens to my foreign currency balance if it goes dormant?

It is converted to dirhams. Article 8.5 requires unclaimed foreign currency balances to be converted at the institution’s published customer rates as at the date of transfer to the Central Bank, and provides that customers will be reimbursed that AED equivalent amount on reclaim. You therefore recover dirhams rather than your original currency, and the exchange movement after conversion is not restored.

Does interest keep accruing on a dormant UAE account?

Until it is transferred to the Central Bank, yes. Article 7.2 provides that on an interest-bearing account, interest continues to accrue at prevailing rates according to the contract terms until the balance is transferred. After transfer the funds stop generating interest, and the Central Bank is expressly not liable for any interest, returns or profits on them.

How long before an unclaimed manager’s cheque expires in the UAE?

It becomes unclaimed after one year, not three. Under Article 2.5, banker’s cheques, bank drafts and cashier’s orders issued at a customer’s request by debit to their account become unclaimed where they remain unclaimed by the beneficiary or the customer for one year, despite the bank’s efforts to make contact. The balance then moves to the bank’s unclaimed balances account and transfers to the Central Bank five years from the date of issue.

What happens to a safe deposit box if I stop paying for it?

Where charges remain outstanding for more than three years and the bank has received no reply from the tenant and no alternative arrangement has been made, the box falls within the dormancy definition. The bank cannot simply open it: Article 3.7 requires it to apply to the court to appoint a person to supervise the opening and direct the disposal of the contents, or to appoint a receiver, in line with Articles 507 and 508 of the Commercial Transactions Law.

Can heirs claim a dormant account of someone who died in the UAE?

Yes. Article 7.1 states the money remains the property of the customer or their legal heirs if the customer has died, and Article 4 expressly provides for claims by legal heirs, personally or through a legal representative, with the relevant legal documentation. The regulation does not decide who the heirs are; that follows the succession rules applying to the estate, which differ depending on whether a registered will exists.

Official Sources

Information is current as of August 2026. Every period, deadline and obligation above was read from the text of the Central Bank of the UAE’s Dormant Accounts and Unclaimed Funds Regulation, C 9/2025, which was issued on 31 December 2025, is shown as in force, and replaced the Dormant Accounts Regulation C 1/2020. Four limitations are stated rather than smoothed over. This regulation binds licensed financial institutions supervised by the Central Bank; accounts held with entities regulated in the DIFC or ADGM sit under those centres’ own regimes and are not covered here. The regulation sets no fee and no penalty figure for customers, and the Central Bank’s enforcement provision leaves sanctions on institutions to supervisory action, so no monetary figure of either kind is quoted. Article 8.8 makes settlement of a claim on funds already transferred conditional on the institution receiving them back from the Central Bank, and the regulation sets no deadline for that step, so total reclaim time on an older balance cannot be stated. And unclaimed dividends are expressly left to the market regulator’s guidelines rather than governed by this regulation. This is general information, not legal or financial advice.