12 U.S.C. § 4
Section 4 · Deputy Comptrollers
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 583 court decisions — leading case Board of Trustees v. Four-C-Aire, Inc. (2022)
Most recently applied in Wudi Industrial (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. v. Wai Wong (July 2025)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 4 U.S.C. § 4 · 9 U.S.C. § 4 · 3 U.S.C. § 4
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 Secretary of the Treasury shall appoint no more than four Deputy Comptrollers of the Currency, one of whom shall be designated First Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, and shall fix their salaries. Each Deputy Comptroller shall take the oath of office and shall perform such duties as the Comptroller shall direct. During a vacancy in the office or during the absence or disability of the Comptroller, each Deputy Comptroller shall possess the power and perform the duties attached by law to the office of the Comptroller under such order of succession following the First Deputy Comptroller as the Comptroller shall direct.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
R.S. §327 derived from act June 3, 1864, ch. 106, §1, 13 Stat. 99, which was the National Bank Act. See section 38 of this title.
R.S. §327, contained after the word “Secretary” the following “who shall be entitled to a salary of two thousand five hundred dollars a year, and” which was omitted from this section on authority of act Mar. 4, 1923, §209(b), fourth sentence, which was classified to section 9a of this title and regulated the salaries of deputy comptrollers.
Amendments
1972—Pub. L. 92–310 struck out provisions which required each Deputy Comptroller to give a bond in the sum of $100,000.
1959—Pub. L. 86–251 provided for the appointment of four Deputy Comptrollers instead of one, the designation of one as the First Deputy, the fixing of salaries, increase in surety bond requirement from $50,000 to $100,000 and order of succession.
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.
Cross References
Oath of office, see Const. Art. VI, cl. 3; section 3331 of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.