Brazilian bank customer finds half a million dollars in forgotten account

Nobody knows whether it is a woman or a man, or what their age is. It has also not emerged whether the money was in an account in this person’s name or whether it was part of an inheritance. But the fact is that a Brazilian national recently received wonderful news after finding (and recovering) 2.8 million reais (more than half a million dollars) that had been lying forgotten in a bank account since who knows when.

It is the kind of money that would solve the financial problems of practically all Brazilians. So far it is the highest amount of money recovered by an individual during the campaign that the Central Bank of Brazil has undertaken to help other forgetful savers. A corporate client recovered 3.3 million reais ($680,000).

The bad news is that the case of the anonymous client is exceptional because the vast majority of the amounts waiting for someone to claim them are less than one hundred reais (around $20), according to the monetary authority. The good news is that there is still more than $1.3 billion lying around in various lenders.

The campaign started last March, and since then, over $800 million have been returned to their legitimate owners.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition