Wanted: Owners for $600,000

The Bank of New Zealand has $600,000 to give away - but no one seems to want it.

The money belongs to about 3000 customers of the failed discount broking firm Access Brokerage who have not yet contacted the liquidators to recover their money.

When Access went into liquidation on September 6 - after a $5 million hole in client funds was found - 10,000 investors with BNZ/Access accounts had a total of $43 million frozen.

The BNZ - prompted by the stock exchange - said it would release the money and underwrite the shortfall. Since then, 98 per cent of the cash has been paid to 7000 Access customers.

A BNZ spokesman urged small account holders to contact the Access liquidators (Ferrier Hodgson) so they could receive their funds.

Liquidator Michael Stiassny said more information was unlikely to be released this month. The Serious Fraud Office investigator was on leave until next week, and Access owner Bill Garlick and director Peter Marshall were still declining to comment.

When the liquidators' initial report was released in September, interests associated with Mr Garlick were said to be the biggest debtors, owing $638,000.

Mr Marshall was said to be recovering from heart surgery and would not be available for interviews for several months.

The liquidators' report confirmed the missing client funds figure at $4.806 million.

It also listed $267,000 owed to trade and expense creditors and for employees' unsecured claims.

Rival broker Discount Broking paid just over $200,000 last year for the Access client database.