TITLE 12 - BANKS AND BANKING

CHAPTER I - COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

PART 7 - BANK ACTIVITIES AND OPERATIONS

subpart d - PREEMPTION

7.4007 - Deposit - taking.

  (a) Authority of national banks. A national bank may receive deposits and engage in any activity incidental to receiving deposits, including issuing evidence of accounts, subject to such terms, conditions, and limitations prescribed by the Comptroller of the Currency and any other applicable Federal law.

  (b) Applicability of state law. (1) Except where made applicable by Federal law, state laws that obstruct, impair, or condition a national bank's ability to fully exercise its Federally authorized deposit-taking powers are not applicable to national banks.

  (2) A national bank may exercise its deposit-taking powers without regard to state law limitations concerning: (i) Abandoned and dormant accounts; 3 3 This does not apply to state laws of the type upheld by the United States Supreme Court in Anderson Nat'l Bank v. Luckett, 321 U.S. 233 (1944), which obligate a national bank to pay [deposits] to the persons entitled to demand payment according to the law of the state where it does business. Id. at 248249.

  (ii) Checking accounts; (iii) Disclosure requirements; (iv) Funds availability; (v) Savings account orders of withdrawal; (vi) State licensing or registration requirements (except for purposes of service of process); and (vii) Special purpose savings services; 4 4 State laws purporting to regulate national bank fees and charges are addressed in 12 CFR 7.4002.

  (c) State laws that are not preempted. State laws on the following subjects are not inconsistent with the deposit-taking powers of national banks and apply to national banks to the extent that they only incidentally affect the exercise of national banks' deposit-taking powers: (1) Contracts; (2) Torts; (3) Criminal law; 5 5 But see the distinction drawn by the Supreme Court in Easton v. Iowa, 188 U.S. 220, 238 (1903) between crimes defined and punishable at common law or by the general statutes of a state and crimes and offences cognizable under the authority of the United States. The Court stated that [u]ndoubtedly a state has the legitimate power to define and punish crimes by general laws applicable to all persons within its jurisdiction ***. But it is without lawful power to make such special laws applicable to banks organized and operating under the laws of the United States.

Id. at 239 (holding that Federal law governing the operations of national banks preempted a state criminal law prohibiting insolvent banks from accepting deposits).

  (4) Rights to collect debts; (5) Acquisition and transfer of property; (6) Taxation; (7) Zoning; and (8) Any other law the effect of which the OCC determines to be incidental to the deposit-taking operations of national banks or otherwise consistent with the powers set out in paragraph (a) of this section.

[69 FR 1916, Jan. 13, 2004]