There's the money we count and the money that lies dormant, silent, at the bottom of a forgotten savings account or a life insurance policy no one remembers. In 2025, the Caisse des Dépôts (CDC) returned €164,4 million to their rightful heirs, sums drawn from bank accounts and contracts that had become inactive. This mechanism is little known to the general public, but it sometimes brings a bit of order to inheritances or complex administrative lives.
Since 2017, the entry point has been Ciclade, an online service managed by the CDC (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations). It allows users to search for forgotten accounts, childhood savings accounts, or the capital of a deceased relative of whom they are unaware they are the beneficiary. When a trace is found, individuals, heirs, or notaries can request its return, free of charge. In 2025, 200.000 requests were filed, and the average amount returned was €943—enough to pay a bill or, sometimes, to discover a small surprise.
Behind these restitutions lies an obligation imposed on banks and insurers: the Eckert Law, passed in 2014 and implemented from 2016, which regulates dormant accounts and unclaimed contracts. Institutions must identify the lack of activity, attempt to contact the account holder, and then transfer the funds after a certain period. This is when the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) becomes the public treasury, with a simple promise: to hold the funds and return them if someone comes forward with the proper documentation.
Ciclade, the digital gateway for unexpected inheritances
In practice, when an account is deemed inactive, the bank must regularly write to the account holder to invite them to get in touch. After a period of inactivity, often ten years for a bank account, the money leaves the institution and is transferred to the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC). In 2025, 758.000 accounts and contracts ended up at the CDC, for a total of €671 million. At this stage, the money isn't lost; it simply changes hands, and that's where many French people lose track.
One rule remains, and it takes a very long-term approach: if no one claims the funds after twenty years once they are held by the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), they are paid to the State and the overseas territories. In 2025, this amounted to 89 million euros. In other words, there is a window of opportunity to recover what belongs to a family or an individual, but it is not permanent, and the administration eventually closes the door.
This annual flurry of activity says something about our times: we change banks, addresses, lives, we pile up contracts like keys on a keyring, then we forget. Ciclade deserves credit for shedding some light on these gray areas, while reminding us of an often-overlooked truth: money doesn't like silence, and inheritances even less so. As transfers continue to increase, the question is no longer whether accounts are still dormant, but how long they will remain untraceable.
