12 U.S.C. § 2501
Section 2501 · Congressional findings and declaration of purpose
This is § 601 of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 54 Fed. Cl. 529 - First Annapolis Bancorp, Inc. v. United States (2002)
Most recently applied in Delaware v. Pennsylvania (February 2023)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
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.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Applicability to Sums Payable on Money Orders, Etc., Deemed Abandoned on or After February 1, 1965; Exception
Section 604 of Pub. L. 93–495 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.”