Savings banks and institutions for savings, powers and duties of. 1876, 203, § 1. Power of gen eral court over for obstructing investigation. 103, 155. 1876, 203, § 27. SAVINGS BANKS AND INSTITUTIONS FOR SAVINGS. SECT. 11. All savings banks or institutions for savings, incorporated under the authority of this commonwealth, may exercise the powers, and shall be governed by the rules, and subject to the duties, liabilities, and provisions contained in the following sections, so far as the same are consistent with the provisions of their respective charters; and any such corporation may, by vote at its annual meeting or at a meeting called for the purpose, except any provision of said sections which is inconsistent with its charter. SECT. 12. The general court may make other or further same. Penalty regulations for the government of such corporations, or may take away their corporate powers; and every such corporation 6. S. 57, §§ 102, and its officers shall be subject to examination by any committee of the general court appointed for the purpose, who may examine into the doings of the corporation, and shall have free access to its books and vaults. An officer of such corporation, or other person having charge of its books and property, who refuses or neglects to exhibit them to such committee, or who in any way obstructs its examination thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding three years. Officers of such corporations. OFFICERS AND MEETINGS. SECT. 13. The officers of every such corporation shall con1876, 203, §§ 2, 3. sist of a president, one or more vice-presidents, a board of not less than nine trustees, a treasurer, clerk, and such other officers as it may find necessary for the management of its affairs. The president, vice-presidents and trustees shall be chosen from the members, and no person shall hold any office in two such corporations at the same time. Such officers shall be sworn, and shall hold their several offices until others are chosen and qualified in their stead, except in the cases hereinafter provided otherwise. Treasurer's bond, and duty board concern ing same. 1876, 203, § 3. 1880, 162. SECT. 14. The treasurer shall give bond for the faithful disof trustees and charge of his duties to the satisfaction of the trustees, and they shall file a copy of the bond with the commissioners, and shall notify them of any change thereafter made therein. The commissioners shall keep a record showing when said bonds expire and the changes so notified, and, whenever in their judgment it is necessary for the security of the depositors, shall require a new bond, in such amount and with such sureties as they may SECT. 15. The officers of every such corporation, except the treasurer, shall be chosen at its annual meetings, to be holden at such time as the by-laws direct, any thing in its charter to the contrary notwithstanding. The treasurer shall be appointed by the trustees, and shall hold his office during their pleasure. If an office becomes vacant during the year, the trustees may appoint a person to fill the same until it is filled at the next annual meeting; and if a person chosen or appointed does not within thirty days thereafter take the oath, his office shall thereupon become vacant. The person acting as clerk at such meeting shall, within ten days thereafter, notify all persons elected to an office, and within thirty days thereafter shall publish in some newspaper published within the county a list of all persons who have taken the oath of office to which they were elected. A clerk neglecting to make such notification or publication, or making a false publication, and any person who knowingly publishes or circulates, or knowingly causes to be published or circulated, a printed notice containing the name of a person as an officer of any such corporation who has not taken the oath of office, shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars. SECT. 16. Every such corporation may at any time hold special meetings by order of its trustees; and its treasurer shall also notify special meetings upon the requisition in writing of any ten members of the corporation. Notice of all meetings shall be given by public advertisement in some newspaper of the county where the corporation is established, or by seasonably mailing to each member a written or printed notice of such meeting. SECT. 17. Every such corporation may, at a legal meeting, elect by ballot any citizen of this commonwealth to be a member thereof; and any person may, at an annual meeting, cease to be a member, if he has filed with the treasurer a written notice of his intention so to do three months at least before such meeting. No person shall continue to be a member after removing from the commonwealth. SECT. 18. A regular meeting of the board of trustees of every such corporation shall be held as often as once in three months, for the purpose of receiving the report of its treasurer, and for the transaction of other business. A quorum shall consist of not less than seven trustees, but less than a quorum may adjourn from time to time or until the next regular meeting. At each regular meeting the trustees shall cause to be prepared a statement showing the condition of the corporation as it appears upon its books, in the form of a trial balance of its Limit to amount. of deposits from any person, and in. terest. 1876, 203, § 8. Deposits, etc., how invested. 1876, 203, § 9. First mortgages of real estate. 1876, 203, § 9. cl. 1. Public funds. 1872. 203, § 9, cl. 3. 1880, 177, § 1. 1881, 214, § 2. accounts, and such statement shall be posted in a conspicuous place in its banking-room, and there remain until the next regular meeting of said board. A record shall be made at each meeting of the transactions of the trustees and the names of those present. If a trustee fails to attend the regular meetings of the board, or to perform any of the duties devolved upon him as such trustee, for six consecutive months, his office shall thereupon become vacant. A record of such vacancy shall be entered upon the books of the corporation, and a transcript of such record shall be sent by mail to the person whose office is thus made vacant. The trustees of every savings bank and institution for savings, incorporated under the authority of this commonwealth, shall cause to be published semi-annually in some newspaper published in the county in which such corporation is located the names of the members of the board of investment or other officers of such corporation charged with the duty of investing its funds. The first publication thereof shall be within thirty days of the election of said officers and the second publication at the expiration of six months therefrom. DEPOSITS, LOANS AND INVESTMENTS. SECT. 19. Every such corporation may receive deposits from any person until they amount to one thousand dollars; and may allow interest upon such deposits, and upon the interest accumulated thereon, until the principal, with the accrued interest, amounts to sixteen hundred dollars; and thereafter upon no greater sum than sixteen hundred dollars; but the limitations contained in this section shall not apply to deposits by religious or charitable corporations. SECT. 20. Deposits and the income derived therefrom shall be invested only as follows: First, On first mortgages of real estate, situated in this commonwealth, to an amount not to exceed sixty per cent. of the valuation of such real estate: but not exceeding seventy per cent. of the whole amount of deposits shall be so invested; and no loan on mortgage shall be made except upon the report of not less than two members of the board of investment, who shall certify to the value of the premises to be mortgaged, according to their best judgment, and such report shall be filed and preserved with the records of the corporation. Second, In the public funds of the United States, of any of the New England states, or of the state of New York, in the bonds or notes of any city, county, or town of this common wealth, or of any city of the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, or Connecticut, whose net indebtedness does not exceed five per cent. of the last preceding valuation of the property therein, for the assessment of taxes; or of any county or town thereof whose net indebtedness does not exceed three per cent. of such valuation; or in the notes of any citizen of this commonwealth, with a pledge of any of the aforesaid securities at no more than the par value thereof. In addition to the investments authorized by section twenty of chapter one hundred and sixteen of the Public Statutes, sav ings banks and institutions for savings may invest their deposits and the income derived there from in the legally authorized bonds of the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, and of the District of Columbia, and in the legally authorized bonds, for municipal purposes, of any city in the aforesaid states, and in the state of New York, which has at the date of such investment more than fifty thousand inhabitants and whose net indebtedness does not exceed five per cent of the valuation of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the last preceding valuation of property therein, for the assessment of taxes; and in the note or notes of any citizen of this commonwealth, with a pledge as collateral of any of the aforesaid securities, the amount invested in such note or notes not to exceed in any case eighty per cent. of the market value of the securities pledged. May make cerinvestments. tain additional 1882, chap. 231. 1881, 214, §§ 1,4 Third, In the first mortgage bonds of any railroad company Railroad bonds. incorporated under the authority of any of the New England states and whose road is located wholly or in part in the same, and which is in possession of and operating its own road, and has earned and paid regular dividends for the two years next preceding such investment; or in the first mortgage bonds, guaranteed by any such railroad company, of any railroad company so incorporated whose road is thus located; or in the bonds or notes of any railroad company incorporated under the laws of this commonwealth, and whose road is located wholly or in part therein, and is unencumbered by mortgage, and which has paid a dividend of not less than five per cent. per annum for two years next preceding such investment; or in the notes of any citizen of this commonwealth, with a pledge as collateral of any of the aforesaid securities at no more than eighty per cent. of the par value thereof; but street railway companies shall not be considered railroad companies within the meaning of this section. Bank stocks, 1881, 214, § 3. Investments in the stock of banks limited. 1882, chap. 224. Loans to depos Personal securities. 1876, 203, § 9, cl. 5. Corporation building and site. 1876, 203, § 9. cl. 6. Fourth, In the stock of any bank incorporated under the authority of this commonwealth, or the stock of any banking association located in the New England states, and incorporated under the authority of the United States, or on the notes of any citizen of this commonwealth, with a pledge as collateral of any of the aforesaid securities at no more than eighty per cent. of the market value and not exceeding the par value thereof: provided, that such corporation shall not hold, both by way of investment and as security for loans, more than one-quarter of the capital stock of any one bank or banking association, nor invest more than ten per cent. of its deposits, nor more than one hundred thousand dollars, in the capital stock of any one such bank or association. Savings banks may deposit sums not to exceed twenty per cent. of the amount of their deposits, on call, in such banks or banking associations, or in any trust company incorporated under the laws of this commonwealth which provides the same security as banking associations incorporated under the authority of the United States, and may receive interest for the same. No savings bank or institution for savings shall hereafter invest or hold as collateral security more than three per cent. of its deposits in the stock of any one bank or banking association such as are described in the fourth clause of section twenty of chapter one hundred and sixteen of the Public Statutes. Any such savings bank or institution for savings which now has more than three per cent. of its deposits invested as aforesaid, shall reduce its investments therein to said limit, on or before the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and eightythree. Fifth, In loans upon the personal notes of the depositors of the corporation, but not exceeding one-half of the amount of his deposit to a depositor; and in each such case the deposit and the book of the depositor shall be held by the corporation as collateral security for the payment of such loan. Sixth, If such deposits and income cannot be conveniently invested in the modes hereinbefore prescribed, not exceeding onethird part thereof may be invested in bonds or other personal securities, payable at a time not exceeding one year, with at least two sureties, if the principal and sureties are all citizens of this commonwealth and resident therein. Seventh, Ten per cent of the deposits of any such corporation, but not exceeding two hundred thousand dollars, may be invested in the purchase of a suitable site and the erection or preparation of a suitable building for the convenient transaction |