US Code

Public Law 119-73 (01/23/2026)

11 U.S.C. § 745

Treatment of accounts

(a)
Accounts held by the debtor for a particular customer in separate capacities shall be treated as accounts of separate customers.
(b)
If a stockbroker or a bank holds a customer net equity claim against the debtor that arose out of a transaction for a customer of such stockbroker or bank, each such customer of such stockbroker or bank shall be treated as a separate customer of the debtor.
(c)
Each trustee’s account specified as such on the debtor’s books, and supported by a trust deed filed with, and qualified as such by, the Internal Revenue Service, and under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, shall be treated as a separate customer account for each beneficiary under such trustee account.

Pub. L. 95–59892 Stat. 2613Pub. L. 97–222, § 1196 Stat. 238Pub. L. 98–353, title III, § 48398 Stat. 383Pub. L. 103–394, title V, § 501(d)(28)108 Stat. 4146(, , ; , , ; , , ; , , .)

Historical and Revision Notes

senate report no. 95–989

Section 745(a) indicates that each account held by a customer in a separate capacity is to be considered a separate account. This prevents the offset of accounts held in different capacities.

Subsection (b) indicates that a bank or another stockbroker that is a customer of a debtor is considered to hold its customers accounts in separate capacities. Thus a bank or other stockbroker is not treated as a mutual fund for purposes of bulk investment. This protects unrelated customers of a bank or other stockholder from having their accounts offset.

Subsection (c) effects the same result with respect to a trust so that each beneficiary is treated as the customer of the debtor rather than the trust itself. This eliminates any doubt whether a trustee holds a personal account in a separate capacity from his trustee’s account.

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Internal Revenue Code of 1986, referred to in subsec. (c), is classified generally to Title 26, Internal Revenue Code.

Amendments

Pub. L. 103–39426 U.S.C. 11994—Subsec. (c). substituted “Internal Revenue Code of 1986” for “Internal Revenue Code of 1954 ( et seq.)”.

Pub. L. 98–3531984—Subsec. (a). inserted “the debtor for” after “by”.

Pub. L. 97–2221982—Subsec. (c). substituted “Each” for “A”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date of 1994 Amendment

Pub. L. 103–394section 702 of Pub. L. 103–394section 101 of this titleAmendment by effective , and not applicable with respect to cases commenced under this title before , see , set out as a note under .

Effective Date of 1984 Amendment

Pub. L. 98–353section 552(a) of Pub. L. 98–353section 101 of this titleAmendment by effective with respect to cases filed 90 days after , see , set out as a note under .