Title 12, Banks and BankingRelease 119-102
§2501 Congressional Findings and Declaration of Purpose
Title 12 › CHAPTER 26 — DISPOSITION OF ABANDONED MONEY ORDERS AND TRAVELER’S CHECKS › § 2501
Summary
When money orders or traveler’s checks are left unclaimed, the State where the buyer lives should get the money. Congress found that banks and sellers usually do not keep buyers’ last addresses, most buyers live in the State where they bought the item, giving those funds to the right State is fair, and tracking down addresses is costly and hurts interstate trade.
Full Legal Text
Title 12, §2501
Banks and Banking, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
The Congress finds and declares that—
(1)the books and records of banking and financial organizations and business associations engaged in issuing and selling money orders and traveler’s checks do not, as a matter of business practice, show the last known addresses of purchasers of such instruments;
(2)a substantial majority of such purchasers reside in the States where such instruments are purchased;
(3)the States wherein the purchasers of money orders and traveler’s checks reside should, as a matter of equity among the several States, be entitled to the proceeds of such instruments in the event of abandonment;
(4)it is a burden on interstate commerce that the proceeds of such instruments are not being distributed to the States entitled thereto; and
(5)the cost of maintaining and retrieving addresses of purchasers of money orders and traveler’s checks is an additional burden on interstate commerce since it has been determined that most purchasers reside in the State of purchase of such instruments.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Applicability to Sums Payable on Money Orders, Etc., Deemed Abandoned on or After
February 1, 1965; Exception Pub. L. 93–495, title VI, § 604, Oct. 28, 1974, 88 Stat. 1526, provided that: “This title [enacting this chapter] shall be applicable to sums payable on money orders, traveler’s checks, and similar written instruments deemed abandoned on or after
February 1, 1965, except to the extent that such sums have been paid over to a State prior to
January 1, 1974.”
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
12 U.S.C. § 2501
Title 12, Banks and Banking
Last Updated
Aug 21, 2026
Release point: 119-102