Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest have set aside a £10 million pot to refund customers who forgot to pick up cash dispensed at the ATM and instead saw it diverted to the bank's own coffers.
The bank is to compensate up to 300,000 customers who made a withdrawal at the ATM but walked away without the cash.
Unlike other banks which automatically re-credit consumer accounts when the machine retracts the forgotten cash, RBS and NatWest diverted the funds into its own 'reserves' account and only paid up if the customer asked for a refund.
The bank says it is checking its records over the past seven years and will repay the money, plus the interest earned on the sum, to customers who lost out.