Shareholder protection will remain at the heart of the inclusion of this asset type in the Scheme. In recognition of the value of providing clarity and transparency to both participants and owners, the government formalised the most common market practice option that provides some entitlement to owners – namely, to align reclaim values to the value of the share at the point it was transferred into the Scheme.

This is on the condition that Scheme participants in this sector have this in their own policy, in order to ensure the equivalence of treatment between owners of the same class of shares within a company. The government has encouraged industry to propose amendments to the model articles of association under the Companies Act 2006 to establish a common set of terms upon which dormant assets could be forfeited and funds transferred into the Scheme.