Do they actually believe they will ever own that money just because they keep yelling : "mine, mine, mine!"?
Maybe with fiat, sure. But not with Bitcoin. Not your keys, not your coins.
This isn't about keys, this is about claiming ownership if those coins are ever deposited into an exchange in the (far) future. I've seen enough questionable judge rulings to not be surprised if some judge in some country would go with this.
It's beyond stupid: if the coins are actually abandoned, they can't access them. But if someone moves them 20 years from now, that proves they weren't abandoned. There is no "claiming abandoned coins" in Bitcoin.
Maybe they hope to claim the empty address if/when they get moved? To have their personal black hole to send funds they want burned - or taken by the guy who actually holds the private key.
If this is an actual shot at the coins, the idea is so stupid it should be punished with a hefty fine.
It only proves that you have thief mentality AND you don't know anything about bitcoin. For a bank that wishes to wear a bitcoiner dress, the move seems dumb.
More likely they are just trying to take a page out of the faketoshi handbook. Try to get a judge to say that’s your property, then sue Bitcoin developers and try to force them to reorganize the blockchain with a fork to give them the abandoned coins. It is foolish and shows how some people rely on trying to use lawfare to steal from others. It’s a despicable practice and those who support it should be ostracized from the community.