PRIA Logo™
Title 12, Banks and BankingRelease 119-110

§30 Change of Name or Location

Title 12 › CHAPTER 2 — NATIONAL BANKS › SUBCHAPTER I — ORGANIZATION AND GENERAL PROVISIONS › § 30

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

A national bank can change its name by notifying the Comptroller of the Currency, but the new name must include the word "National". The bank may move its main office to any authorized branch inside its city or town. To move outside those local limits, shareholders holding two‑thirds of the stock must approve and the Comptroller must certify the move, and the new office cannot be more than 30 miles beyond the limits. If the main office moves from one State to another after May 31, 1997, the bank may keep branches in the old State only as section 36(e)(2) allows. A Federal savings association that converts to a national or State bank after November 12, 1999, may keep "Federal" in its name while it remains an insured depository institution. The terms used are defined in section 1813.

Full Legal Text

Title 12, §30

Banks and Banking, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Name change
Any national banking association, upon written notice to the Comptroller of the Currency, may change its name, except that such new name shall include the word “National”.
(b)Location change
Any national banking association, upon written notice to the Comptroller of the Currency, may change the location of its main office to any authorized branch location within the limits of the city, town, or village in which it is situated, or, with a vote of shareholders owning two-thirds of the stock of such association for a relocation outside such limits and upon receipt of a certificate of approval from the Comptroller of the Currency, to any other location within or outside the limits of the city, town, or village in which it is located, but not more than thirty miles beyond such limits.
(c)Coordination with section 36 of this title
In the case of a national bank which relocates the main office of such bank from 1 State to another State after May 31, 1997, the bank may retain and operate branches within the State from which the bank relocated such office only to the extent authorized in section 36(e)(2) of this title.
(d)Retention of “Federal” in name of converted Federal savings association
(1)In general
Notwithstanding subsection (a) or any other provision of law, any depository institution, the charter of which is converted from that of a Federal savings association to a national bank or a State bank after November 12, 1999, may retain the term “Federal” in the name of such institution if such institution remains an insured depository institution.
(2)Definitions
For purposes of this subsection, the terms “depository institution”, “insured depository institution”, “national bank”, and “State bank” have the meanings given those terms in section 1813 of this title.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1999—Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 106–102 added subsec. (d). 1994—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 103–328 added subsec. (c). 1983—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 97–457 inserted “for a relocation outside such limits” after “stock of such association”. 1982—Pub. L. 97–320 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a), substituted provisions permitting a

Change of Name

upon written notice to the Comptroller, such new name to include “National”, for provisions permitting a

Change of Name

or location of the main office, with approval of the Comptroller, within city limits, etc., or outside such limits by vote of shareholders, such change to be validated by certificate of approval, and added subsec. (b). 1959—Pub. L. 86–230 required approval of Comptroller of the Currency before a national bank could change location of its main office within the limitations of the city, town, or village in which it is situated.

Executive Documents

Exception as to

Transfer of Functions

Functions vested by any provision of law in Comptroller of the Currency, referred to in this section, not included in

Transfer of Functions

to Secretary of the Treasury, see note set out under section 1 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

12 U.S.C. § 30

Title 12, Banks and Banking

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110