Article 15.
The statement of paragraph 1480 of the General Civil Code, by which claims to arrears of interests are lost after three years, has no application to interests of depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank.
In relation to the lapse of Post Office Savings Bank deposits the ordinary legal decisions will be relied upon. Lapsed deposits fall into the postal treasury. Such a lapsing of deposits will be stopped by every new payment, every notice for payment back, every entry of interest in the deposit book.
Article 16.
State bonds bought officially, or at the request of depositors, and kept at the Post Office Savings Bank fall into the postal treasury, if, during a lapse of 40 years, no one has laid claim either to the deposit or to the interest, and the depositor has not forwarded to the Post Office Savings Bank any order whatever with reference to them.
Article 17.
Neither savings deposited at the Post Office Savings Bank, nor the Post Office Savings Bank deposit-books can be sequestered, and in like manner they cannot be used as security. Nor can a deposit-book be seized or taken in distraint.
These restrictions have no application to the books mentioned in Articles 11 and 12, as issued for the state bonds bought for a depositor.
If a depositor declares himself insolvent, the Official Receiver is empowered to give notice to the Post Office Savings Bank to pay him the balance in favour of the depositor, and thereon to give a receipt.