In Foley v Hill (1848), England's House of Lords ruled that a bank does not hold a deposit in trust for its customer, it owns it outright. The moment money is paid in, Lord Cottenham wrote, it "ceases altogether to be the money of the principal; it is then the money of the banker," who merely owes a debt back on demand. The depositor becomes, in the law's own language, an unsecured creditor.
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