2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XXII - Corporations › Chapter 167a - Bank Holding Companies › Section 4 - Petition to Board for Authority to Act Under Sec. 2; Hearing; Review; Loans to Housing Partnership Fund; Executive Officers; Asset Base

Section 4. Any company or bank holding company seeking authority to act under the provisions of section two shall file a petition with the board of bank incorporation, together with a fee, the amount of which shall be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provisions of section three B of chapter seven, except that such fee shall not be less than ten thousand dollars, and said board shall hold a public hearing pursuant to the provisions of chapter thirty A.
In determining whether or not to approve said petition, the decision of the board shall be based on a finding whether or not competition among banking institutions will be unreasonably affected and whether public convenience and advantage will be promoted. In making such determination, the board shall consider, but not be limited to, a showing of net new benefits. For the purposes of this section, the term ''net new benefits'' shall mean initial capital investments, job creation plans, consumer and business services, commitments to maintain and open branch offices within a bank's delineated local community as such term is used within section fourteen of chapter one hundred and sixty-seven, and such other matters as the board may deem necessary or advisable. Such decision shall be subject to review in the manner provided for in chapter thirty A.
The board shall not approve such petition until it has received notice from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Fund, established by section thirty-five of chapter four hundred and five of the acts of nineteen hundred and eighty-five, that arrangements satisfactory to such fund have been made for such company or bank holding company to make ninety hundredths of one percent of its assets located in the commonwealth available for call by said fund for a period of ten years for the purpose of providing loans to the fund for financing, down payment assistance, share loans, closing costs and other costs related to creating affordable rental housing, limited equity cooperatives and affordable home ownership opportunities and tenant management programs and tenant unit acquisition or ownership programs in state funded public housing developments. All loans made to the fund by such company or bank holding company shall be deemed to be legal investments for such company or bank holding company and shall be made on terms and conditions established by the board of directors of the fund; provided, however, that (a) such loans shall be evidenced by notes, or other evidence of indebtedness of the fund, which shall bear interest at rates approved by the commissioner which shall be based upon the costs, not to include any so-called lost opportunity costs, incurred by the company or bank holding company in making funds available to the fund, provided, however, that the fund may, by agreement with such company or bank holding company, accept a reduction in the amount of said call based upon a lower rate of interest; (b) no loan to the fund shall be secured in any manner unless all outstanding loans to the fund shall be secured equally and ratably in proportion to the unpaid balance of such loans and in the same manner. The commissioner shall promulgate regulations to enforce the provisions of this paragraph.
The fund shall file with the commissioner a report subsequent to any call to borrow funds pursuant to this section. Such report shall contain the total amount of the call, the allocation of the call to each such company or bank holding company, and the amount loaned by each to the fund. Said report shall be filed within sixty days of any such call.
No such petition shall be approved until the board has received written assurances from such company or bank holding company that a resident or residents of the commonwealth shall occupy a position of an executive officer in the acquired or established Massachusetts bank or in any successor institution thereto for so long as such company or bank holding company shall control such Massachusetts banking institution. For the purposes of this section, the term ''executive officer'' shall mean a person who participates in major policy making functions of the company or bank whether or not (1) the officer has an official title; provided, however, that the term does not include a person who may have an official title and may exercise a certain measure of discretion in the performance of his duties, including discretion in the making of loans, but who does not participate in the determination of major policies of the bank and whose decisions are limited by policy standards fixed by the senior management of the bank; (2) the title designates the officer an assistant; or (3) the officer is serving without salary or compensation. The chairman of the board, the president, senior vice president, the cashier, the secretary and the treasurer of a bank shall be deemed to be executive officers unless (i) the officer is excluded, by resolution of the board of directors or the by-laws, from participation, in major policy making functions of the bank, or (ii) the officer does not actually participate therein.
Notwithstanding any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary, every such company or bank holding company acquiring a banking institution in the commonwealth in accordance with this section shall maintain, for a period of two years, an asset base in the acquired entity equal to or greater than the total assets of such acquired entity on the date of acquisition; provided, however, that the commissioner may waive this requirement if, in his judgment, economic conditions warrant the same.