The National Bank Act directs that all national banks in the sixteen largest cities shall at all times have on hand, in lawful money of the United States, an amount equal to at least twenty-five per cent. of the aggregate amount of its notes in circulation and de- posits. Fifteen per cent. is required of all other national banks. When the reserve falls below the proper limit, the bank must not increase its liability, otherwise than by discounting or purchasing bills of exchange payable at sight, nor make any dividend, till the limit is reached. On a failure to make good the reserve for thirty days after notice by the comptroller of the currency, the latter may, with the concurrence of the secretary of the treasury, appoint a re- ceiver to wind up the bank. R. S. § 5191. In Insurance Law. In general it means a sum of money, variously computed or estimated, which with accretions from in- terest, is set aside, reserved, as a fund with which to mature or liquidate, either by pay- ment or reinsurance with other companies, future unaccrued and contingent claims, and claims accrued, but contingent and indefinite as to amount or time of payment. 251. 5.350.See RESERVE FUND Under the statutes of many states insurance companies are required to deposit in each state where they do business securities approved by some state officer, usually an insurance commissioner, to an amount specified over and above the capital stock of the com- pany, which is termed the reserve fund.. Such statutes usually prescribe rules for its investment and also the percentage at which it shall be accumulated; Biddle, Ins. § 66. They are held not to apply to relief associations where the assessments are purely voluntary; 11 Ins. L. J. N. Y. 859; or mutual insurance companies; 9 Colo. 73. The securities which compose a reserve fund are in the nature of a trust fund for the policy holders, and not a security for the general creditors: 43 Ohio St. 359; 76 Mo. 594; 12 R. I. 259; and a receiver appointed in case of the insolvency of a company is not entitled to control it, but securities are held in trust for distri- bution by the trustee; 56 Conn. 234. After the policy holders are satisfied, the securi- ties, if the property of the company, may be applied for the benefit of general cred- itors; 12 R. I. 259. In many states such fund is required as a prerequisite to permission to a foreign insurance company to do business in the state, and ordinarily the deposits required by such laws are for the benefit of domestic policy holders: 91 Mo. 177; 77 Va. 85; 25 Neb. 834; 17 U. C. Ch. 160. Another use of the term is its applica- tion to a fund sometimes called the safety fund and sometimes a reserve fund in poli- cies issued by companies which provide for an assessment to meet the losses. Such fund is intended for the protection of liv- ing members by the use of the income for the payment of dues and assessments; 2 Joyce, Ins. § 1287. Where a reserve fund and the mortuary and benefit fund were to be raised by assessments, the latter being for the payment of death claims only and the former for the exclusive use of mem- bers, except that it might be used in pay- ment of death claims when they exceed the experience table of mortality, it was held, upon dissolution, that the reserve fund was to be distributed exclusively among the holders of certificates in force, and that death claims had no right to share in it; 65 N. Y. 867; 131 N. Y. 354. See 92 Hun 592. In a policy on the Tontine system (see INSURANCE, subtitle, Tontine), where, in addition to the provision for the payment of death claims. it was provided that in case the policy holder survived the specified period and the policy remained in force, there should be a payment in cash or an- nuity bonds from a fund created by a cer- tain class of policy holders consisting of those effecting insurance on the same plan and in the same year, the surplus and profits to be equitably apportioned among surviv- ors of that class, it was held that the policy did not require a separate investment of these funds and that the consent of the as- sured to placing the dividends in a reserve fund did not extend its obligations in that respect; 101 Ν. Υ. 828. Where a policy recited that it was upon the "reserve dividend plan," and that if premiums were paid for ten years the com- pany would pay to the person designated his equitable proportion of the "reserve dividend fund," it was held that the mean- ings of the terms employed must be ascer- tained by recourse to contemporary insur- ance literature, and as the only reserve dividend plan then known was the one devised and copyrighted by W. P. Stewart, who was engaged as actuary by the de- fendant and his plan used by it, the liabil- ity must be determined by reference thereto; 37 Fed. Rep. 163. The term reserve in life insurance is also applied to the fund accumulated out of premiums after the payment of expenses and other charges properly apportioned to each policy, and