2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SEVEN - Banking (§§ 1 — 3116) › PART III - Other Financial Institutions (§§ 551 — 1390) › Chapter 61 - Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico (§§ 551 — 607i) › Subchapter I - General Provisions (§§ 551 — 569) › § 559c - Power to organize and operate a bridge bank

(a) When a receiver has been appointed for the Bank, the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico shall have the power, in his/her discretion, to organize and charter a temporary bank to be referred to as a bridge bank to assist the receiver in fulfilling its powers and duties. Such bank shall be organized and chartered pursuant to a Charter Resolution adopted by the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico and filed in the Department of State. The bridge bank shall be chartered on the date the Charter Resolution is filed in the Department of State. The Department of State shall proceed to register the bridge bank as a banking institution. Any amendment to the Charter Resolution shall also be filed in the Department of State. The effective date shall be the date of filing.
(b) A bridge bank so organized shall have (1) the powers, benefits and attributes set forth in § 552 of this title and the tax exemptions set forth in § 553 of this title; and (2) those powers, rights, functions and duties conferred to the Bank and such limitations as are imposed on the Bank by this chapter and by any other Commonwealth or federal statute, except to the extent that any powers, benefits, attributes, rights, functions and duties provided in clauses (1) and (2) are limited or otherwise modified by the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico in the bridge bank’s Charter Resolution, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of this section. The provisions of §§ 1 et seq. of this title, known as the “Puerto Rico Banking Act”, shall not apply to the bridge bank. Such bridge bank shall be under the management of a board of directors, which initially shall be the Board of Directors of the Bank and shall thereafter, or upon the occurrence of a vacancy, be appointed in the same manner as the members of the Board of Directors of the Bank were appointed pursuant to this chapter. To the extent the receiver transfers to the bridge bank any of the subsidiaries of the Bank whose Board of Directors is the same as that of the Bank, the Board of Directors of such subsidiary shall upon such transfer be the same as that of the bridge bank. If the bridge bank ceases to exist, the members of the Board of Directors of any surviving subsidiary shall be appointed in the same manner as the members of the Board of Directors of the Bank were appointed pursuant to this chapter. The name of the bridge bank shall be set forth in its Charter Resolution. For the avoidance of doubt, upon the charter of a bridge bank, any reference to the Bank in any Commonwealth law shall be understood to refer and apply to such bridge bank, as applicable, but in no case shall the bridge bank be responsible for any liabilities of the Bank unless such liabilities are expressly assumed by the bridge bank. The Secretary of the Treasury may include in the Charter Resolution a provision whereby any or all of the Bank’s subsidiaries and affiliates shall become subsidiaries or affiliates of the bridge bank.
(c) The receiver may transfer any or all of the Bank’s powers, rights, functions and duties, and any ownership, contractual or operational interests or relationships between the Bank and its subsidiaries and affiliates to the bridge bank, as is determined to be appropriate.
(d) In transferring assets and liabilities to a bridge bank, and otherwise conducting its operations, the receiver may exercise all powers granted to the receiver and shall not be subject to any limitation on the transfer of assets or liabilities contained in this chapter when making such transfer.
(e) The bridge bank may (1) assume such liabilities of the Bank, including deposits, as the receiver may, in its discretion, determine to be appropriate; (2) purchase such assets (including assets associated with any trust business); of the Bank as the receiver may, in its discretion, determine to be appropriate; (3) assume such rights, titles, powers, privileges, interests or authorities of the Bank relating to its subsidiaries or affiliates (which subsidiaries or affiliates shall thereafter have all rights, titles, powers, privileges, interests, or authorities as they enjoyed on the date they were transferred to the bridge bank); and (4) perform any other function that the Secretary of the Treasury, may, in its discretion, prescribe in accordance with this section. Such bridge bank shall not be subject to any requirement to maintain deposit reserves above a certain threshold pursuant to applicable law and, to the extent a reserve requirement may be deemed to apply to such bridge bank, the Secretary of the Treasury may waive this requirement upon the granting of a charter to such bridge bank.
(f) The receiver shall order the transfer of all permanent, temporary and/or non-union employees, that work for the Bank to the bridge bank and said employees shall become employees of the bridge bank. This transfer of employees shall be effectuated while honoring the terms and conditions of employment effective as of the appointment of the receiver, including the rights, privileges, obligations and seniority, acquired pursuant to applicable laws, collective bargaining agreements and current personnel regulations, subject to the modifications contained in Act 66-2014 while it remains effective. None of the provisions of this chapter shall affect the constitutional right to collective bargaining enjoyed by the employees of the Bank, nor the vested rights, benefits and privileges, by virtue of any collective bargaining agreements. The bridge bank shall recognize the unions that represent the unionized workers of the Bank transferred to the bridge bank and shall assume the applicable collective bargaining agreements in effect on such date. Rights with regard to any pension or retirement system to which they may be affiliated or members of on the effective date of this act shall also be guaranteed. The bridge bank shall be obligated to satisfy to all employees any of their salaries, wages, commissions, including payments related to vacations, allowances and sick leaves or other employment benefits acquired prior to the appointment of the receiver, in accordance with the Bank’s employment policies or applicable law.
(g) The bridge bank, and each of its subsidiaries, shall be an independent public corporation and a public instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico with separate legal existence, fiscal and administrative autonomy, and independence from the Commonwealth.
(h) A bridge bank shall be treated as the Bank in default at such times and for such purposes as the receiver for the Bank may, in its discretion, determine, and shall not otherwise be treated as in default or insolvent.
(i) The Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico may provide funding on behalf of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and provide such guarantees under § 62 of Title 13, or other support appropriate to facilitate the operation and conduct of the business of the bridge bank and any of its subsidiaries consistent with the authorities provided by this chapter, and to facilitate any transaction described in this section by the bridge bank or facilitate the acquisition or transfer of any functions or assets, or the assumption of any liabilities, of the Bank or of the bridge bank as provided in this chapter.
(j) The receiver for the Bank may transfer any operations, assets, and liabilities of the Bank (including any operations, assets or liabilities associated with any trust or custody business) to the bridge bank, in accordance with subsections (a)—(d) of this section. At any time after the establishment of the bridge bank with respect to the Bank, the receiver may transfer any operations, assets and liabilities of the Bank or the bridge bank and take any other action as it determines, in his discretion, to be appropriate in accordance with subsections (a)—(d) of this section. The transfer of any operations, assets or liabilities to a bridge bank shall be effective without any further approval under Commonwealth law, assignment, or consent with respect thereto. Assets may be transferred to a bridge bank in exchange for such bank’s obligation to pay, over time, with interest at the then applicable judgment rate of interest, an amount determined by the receiver, which amount shall be at least the amount that the Bank’s creditors whose debt is not assumed by the bridge bank would have received for the value of the assets transferred to the bridge bank, after taking into account the benefit to creditors of the Bank of the bridge bank’s assumption of liabilities of the Bank, as if the Bank had been liquidated on the date of the appointment of the receiver (the “Net Liquidation Amount”). Any judicial action to which a bridge bank becomes a party by virtue of its acquisition of any assets or assumption of any liabilities of the Bank shall be stayed from further proceedings for a period of not longer than ninety (90) days (or such longer or shorter period as may be agreed to upon the consent of all parties) at the request of the bridge bank. The receiver shall determine the Net Liquidation Amount by taking the average of two assessments of such amount by two independent valuation experts provided full access to the Bank’s records and sufficient time to determine the likely liquidation value, net of expenses, that could be obtained for the Bank’s assets if sold with a reasonable amount of marketing within ninety (90) days of the date the receivership commenced; Provided, however, That if the higher assessment is more than 20% higher than the lower assessment of the Net Liquidation Value, the receiver shall retain a third independent valuation experts that shall prepare its assessment after having access to the Bank’s records for a sufficient time, and the Net Liquidation Value shall be the average of the two highest assessments. If a creditor challenges the Net Liquidation Value in a judicial proceeding, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the Net Liquidation Value is correct.
(k) Any bridge bank that the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico charters in relation to the resolution or restructuring of the Bank, and any subsequent transferee of all or any part of the operations, assets, or liabilities of the Bank, shall not be a successor entity to the Bank and shall not be subject to any liability arising from the operations of the Bank before the appointment of the receiver, except as contractually agreed by the bridge bank and the receiver, as applicable.
(l) Subject to subsections (m) and (p), the charter of a bridge bank as such shall terminate two (2) years after the date it was granted or at such earlier time as determined by the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico. The Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico may, in his discretion, extend the status of the bridge bank as such for no more than 3 additional 1-year periods. The termination of the charter for the bridge bank shall not affect any of its subsidiaries and affiliates, and each shall remain as independent public corporations, unless otherwise provided by the Secretary of the Treasury, whose board of directors shall be appointed in the same way the board of directors of the Bank was appointed.
(m) The Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico may amend the charter of the bridge bank to reflect the termination of the status of the bridge bank as such and provide that the bridge bank shall be a new bank, whereupon the bridge bank shall have all of the rights, powers, and privileges under its constituent documents and applicable Commonwealth law. In connection therewith, the bridge bank may be deemed to succeed by operation of law to such rights, titles, powers, and interests of the bridge bank provided by its charter.
(n) The bridge bank may take any and all actions that are reasonable and necessary to allow the bridge bank to operate normally and fulfill its statutory obligations, including without limitation:
(1) Prescribing such conditions or restrictions for the conduct of the business of the bridge bank;
(2) limiting or conditioning the disbursement of any loans;
(3) limiting or conditioning any withdrawals or transfers of deposits pursuant to terms the bridge bank prescribes to address the bridge bank’s liquidity needs or facilitate the bridge bank’s ability to perform its normal operations; and
(4) limiting or suspending:
(A) Payments on any obligation;
(B) payments on any letter of credit; and
(C) any obligation or commitment to lend or extend money or credit.
(o) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this chapter, the bridge bank shall not have the authority to require government entities to deposit in the bridge bank pursuant to § 607b-1 of this title.
(p) Notwithstanding any other provision of Commonwealth law, if the status of a bridge bank as such has not previously been terminated pursuant to subsection (l) or (m), (1) the Board of Directors, with the approval of the of the Secretary of Treasury of Puerto Rico, shall dissolve the bridge bank in accordance with this subsection at any time; and (2) the board of directors of the bridge bank with the approval of the Secretary of Treasury shall promptly commence dissolution proceedings in accordance with this paragraph upon the expiration of the 2-year period following the date on which the bridge bank was chartered, or any extension thereof, as provided in subsection (m). The Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico may appoint a receiver for a bridge bank if it determines that such action will facilitate the winding up and final resolution of the bridge bank or the Bank in receivership. The receiver for a bridge bank shall wind up the affairs of the bridge bank in conformity with the provisions of law relating to the resolution of the Bank under this chapter. With respect to any such bridge bank, the receiver shall have all the rights, powers, and privileges and shall perform the duties related to the exercise of such rights, powers, or privileges, granted by law to the receiver for the Bank under this chapter and, notwithstanding any other provision of Commonwealth law, in the exercise of such rights, powers, and privileges, the receiver shall not be subject to the direction or supervision of any agency of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, except as provided for a receiver for the Bank in this chapter.
History —Sept. 23, 1948, No. 17, p. 290, added as § 14 on Apr. 6, 2016, No. 21, § 401.