A new, free service that can be used to notify financial services of the death of a family member, friend or care home resident, has been launched.

The creation of the Death Notification Service by UK Finance and the major banks follows on from the Financial Services Vulnerability Taskforce recommendation that a simple, secure way to notify the relevant financial services of a customer’s death should be created.

The aim is to ease the process for the recently bereaved by reducing stressful, repetitive conversations with multiple financial organisations.

Barclays, Santander UK and HSBC UK are among the 16 organisations that are members of the scheme so far.

Chief executive of UK Finance, Stephen Jones, said: "The launch of this new service is an important milestone in the industry’s commitment to do all it can to provide greater help and support to people during difficult circumstances."

The service can be used by anyone who wishes to notify one or more of the participating organisations. The notifier will be asked to provide details about themselves for identification purposes, as well as the full name, date of birth, date of death, last address and death certificate number (if known) of the deceased.

After completing the online form and selecting which of the member institutions need to be informed, the notifier will be contacted by the individual institutions regarding next steps within 10 days.

Find out more about the Death Notification Service, and the recommendations made by the Financial Services Vulnerability Taskforce.