2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SEVEN - Banking (§§ 1 — 3116) › PART III - Other Financial Institutions (§§ 551 — 1390) › Chapter 62 - Economic Development Bank for Puerto Rico (§§ 611 — 611q) › § 611b - Faculties and powers

The Bank shall have the following faculties and powers:
(a) To sue and be sued.
(b) To have an official seal and alter it from time to time.
(c) To invest in industrial, commercial, agricultural, hotel and service enterprises located in Puerto Rico, without this being construed as a limitation, through the acquisition of common and preferred stock, as well as of capital liabilities of said firms, and exercise all and each of the rights and powers related to or inherent thereto.
(d) To loan money, with or without collateral, to any person, firm, corporation or other private organization when such loans are to be used to promote the government’s purpose of developing the economy of Puerto Rico. Such loans shall be secured by notes, bonds, certificates of exchange, convertible certificates of exchange, certificates entitled to acquisition of stock, certificates of equipment in trust, assets received through the organization of the issuing entity, or other obligations or documents from said debtors. Provided, That the total debt of any borrower with the Bank shall not exceed at any time ten percent (10%) of the capital and surplus of the Bank, plus an additional margin of fifteen percent (15%) of said capital and surplus when said debt, in whole or in part, but always when the part in excess of the ten percent (10%) of said capital and surplus, is secured by collateral of a specific value of not less than twenty-five percent (25%) more than the sum of the debt in excess of the ten percent (10%) of said capital and surplus. Provided, further, That the Bank and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates shall not make loans or secure loans to their directors, officials, agents, employees, or to any private enterprise whatsoever in which one or more of said directors, officials, agents or employees own an interest, nor shall it grant loans with the collateral of a director, official, agent or employee, except, and in every case, with the unanimous approval of all the directors, excluding any director or directors concerned, who are present at a meeting of the Board of Directors to which at least seventy-five percent (75%) of the minimum of the total number of members of the Board are present, excluding any director or directors concerned, and during the consideration of said loans and/or collateral, as well as during the voting thereon, said director or directors concerned shall be excused from said meeting.
(e) To borrow money and contract debts for its corporate ends, under such terms and conditions which its Board of Directors shall determine from time to time, with or without collateral, dispose of its obligations securing such loans, make, grant and hand over trust instruments and other agreements in regard to any of said loans, debts, bond issues, notes, mortgage obligations or other obligations, and by authority of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico granted herein, issue its own bonds, notes, mortgage obligations or other obligations.
(f) To sell, trade, retain or dispose of the debt instruments which it acquires as a result of its operations.
(g) To acquire every type of assets for its corporate ends, by concession, gift, purchase, deed or donation, and own and exercise property rights thereon, and dispose of the same.
(h) To acquire all kinds of assets in payment of, or on account of credit balances, or in exchange for investments made in the course of its business, when such acquisition is desirable or necessary to reduce or avoid a loss in connection therewith, and to retain said assets for the term that the Board of Directors deems convenient, and to exercise property rights thereon and to dispose thereof.
(i) To secure the payment of principal and interest on loans granted by other financial institutions to private persons and entities, when said loans are to be used for the purposes and under the terms of this chapter.
(j) To invest its funds, primarily, in bonds of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or secured in principal as well as in interest by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; or in bonds of any agency, instrumentality, commission, authority, municipality, or other political subdivisions of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; or in direct United States bonds; or in bonds secured in principal and interest by the United States; or in bonds of any agency, instrumentality, commission, authority, or other political subdivisions of the United States; or in bonds of international banking institutions recognized by the United States and to which the United States has furnished capital; or in bonds issued by public or private domestic or foreign corporate entities, rated by a credit rating agency nationally recognized in the United States in one of its three (3) highest generic scales. The Bank may also invest its funds in bank acceptances or certificates of deposit, endorsed or issued, as the case may be, by banks organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the States of the American Union, or by any foreign bank of proven financial solvency, authorized to do business in Puerto Rico or the United States of America.
(k) To exert all those corporate powers that are not incompatible with those expressed herein which, pursuant to the laws of Puerto Rico, are conferred on the corporations, and exercise them within and without Puerto Rico in the same extent and form that a natural person would.
(l) To create subsidiary or affiliate firms by resolution of its Board of Directors when, in its judgment, such action is advisable, desirable or necessary for the performance of the Bank’s functions or to meet its institutional purposes or to exercise its powers. No subsidiary which is thus created by disposition of the Board of Directors shall have the power to carry out financing or investment transactions which the Development Bank itself is not empowered to carry out. The Bank may sell, lease, loan, donate or transfer any of its assets to the subsidiary firms thus created. The subsidiaries created by the Bank by virtue of the powers conferred by this subsection shall constitute government instrumentalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, independent and separate from the Bank, and shall have those powers, rights, functions and duties which this chapter confers on the Bank, and which its Board of Directors delegates thereon. The provisions of § 611f of this title shall apply to all subsidiary firms thus organized and which are subject to the Bank’s control.
(m) To act as trustee and receive fixed-rate deposits from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or from the United States and any of its political subdivisions, instrumentalities, agencies and public corporations, from the Commonwealth Retirement Funds, as well as from any bank or trust company or any other financial institution that operates in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(n) To establish the offices it deems are necessary or convenient for the transaction of its business.
(o) To grant and award scholarships and cash prizes, plaques, medals or any other award, to natural or juridical persons as a way of promoting, developing and stimulating the economic development of the private sector in Puerto Rico, all in accordance with the norms authorized to such effect by the Board of Directors of the Bank.
(p) To transact with priority the consideration of applications for financing from small and medium business ventures for the manufacturing, sale, and installation of solar equipment and windmills to generate electric power from renewable energy sources, subject to the rules on credit of the bank.
(q) Give priority, to financing applications from small businesses that wish to develop new products using recyclable materials as raw material for manufacturing, subject to the credit standards established by the Bank for such purposes.
History —July 24, 1985, No. 22, § 3; Aug. 16, 1989, No. 63, §§ 1-3; Apr. 26, 1994, No. 12, § 1; Dec. 29, 2009, No. 197, § 1; Mar. 18, 2010, No. 27, § 1.