---
kind: "section"
citation: "12 U.S.C. § 216a"
title: "12"
title_heading: "Banks and Banking"
number: "216a"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/12/216a"
units:
  - "Chapter 2 — National Banks"
  - "Subchapter XVII — Disposition of Unclaimed Property Recovered from Closed National Banks"
---

# §216a. Definitions


For purposes of this subchapter—

- (1) the term “[Comptroller](/usc/12/215b.md?p=3)” means the [Comptroller](/usc/12/215b.md?p=3) of the Currency;
- (2) the term “unclaimed property” means any articles, items, assets, other property, or the proceeds thereof from safe deposit boxes or other safekeeping arrangements with closed national banks, which are in the possession, custody, or control of the [Comptroller](/usc/12/215b.md?p=3) in its capacity as successor to receivers of those banks; and
- (3) the term “claimant” means any [person](/usc/12/5481.md?p=19) or entity, including a [State](/usc/12/215b.md?p=2) under applicable statutory law, asserting a demonstrable legal interest in title to, or custody or possession of, [unclaimed property](#2).

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 96–221, title VII, § 732, as added Pub. L. 97–320, title IV, § 408, Oct. 15, 1982, 96 Stat. 1513; amended Pub. L. 109–351, title VII, § 725(c)(2), Oct. 13, 2006, 120 Stat. 2001; Pub. L. 109–356, title I, § 123(c)(2), Oct. 16, 2006, 120 Stat. 2029.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2006—Par. (2). Pub. L. 109–351 and 109–356 amended par. (2) identically, striking out “or closed banks in the District of Columbia” after “closed national banks”.