HONG KONG, Oct 21: Customers have left unclaimed a fortune in small deposits totalling nearly 9 million US dollars after Hong Kong’s biggest banking failure, a news report said Monday.

Thousands of depositors are owed sums ranging from around 10 US dollars to 1,500 dollars sitting in the accounts of the Bank of Credit and Commerce Hong Kong which shut down 11 years ago.

Many investors cannot be located by the Official Receiver’s Office, the South China Morning Post reported, while many others have been sent cheques which have never been cashed.

The money will be handed over to the government if the investors do not contact liquidators KPMG within the next five years, the newspaper said.

More than 34,000 depositors and creditors have been paid a total of 1.076 billion US dollars since the collapse of the bank in 1991, the Official Receiver’s Office said.—dpa