2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SEVEN - Banking (§§ 1 — 3116) › PART I - Banks (§§ 1 — 278) › Chapter 1 - General Provisions and Definitions (§§ 1 — 4) › § 3 - Definitions

The following shall be the definitions which for the purposes of §§ 1 et seq. of this title, shall be given to the terms stated below:
(a) Affiliate. — Shall mean any company which controls, or is controlled by, or is subject to control in common with another company.
(b) Supervising agency. — Shall mean any of the following:
(1) The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency or “OCC”, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or “FDIC”, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or “FRB”, and any other successor of these agencies;
(2) any agency of any jurisdiction with primary responsibility over the organization and supervision of banks, and
(3) any State or federal agency charged with exercising the functional regulation of any activity carried out by banks or their subsidiaries.
(c) Bank. — Shall mean a corporation organized and authorized to operate under the provisions of §§ 1 et seq. of this title.
(d) Foreign bank. — Shall mean a corporation or entity organized for the purpose of engaging in banking business, under the laws of another territory or state, or the United States, or a foreign country, which operates a bank and does business in the place of its incorporation and has been authorized to operate in Puerto Rico under the provisions of §§ 1 et seq. of this title.
(e) Commissioner. — Shall mean the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of Puerto Rico.
(f) Reserve fund. — Shall mean a fund formed or increased by the total amount of premiums obtained from the sale of shares, or through the transfer of the liquid profits or the undistributed profits of the bank, which fund shall not be used to pay for the operating losses of the bank while there is any available balance in the undistributed profits account. Nor can the reserve fund be used for the payment of dividends without the prior approval of the Commissioner.
(g) Legal reserve. — Shall mean the minimum amount of securities or liquid assets which any bank subject to the provisions of §§ 1 et seq. of this title, is compelled to have available at all times.
(h) Demand liabilities. — Shall mean all such obligations that a bank is compelled to pay within a term of not more than three (3) days.
(i) Savings account. — Shall mean any account whereby the bank in accordance with its bylaws, has the authority to require the depositor to give a thirty (30)-day notice prior to any withdrawal of funds from said account.
(j) Deposit certificate. — Shall mean any deposit which has been evidenced by a receipt, written agreement, punch card, magnetic tape, photograph, microphotograph, computer file or any other means of storing information, provided the records thus kept can be converted into a clearly legible form within a reasonable period of time. Said records shall state the term for which the deposit has been made including the fact that it has to be cancelled by the bank upon its collection.
(k) Office of the Commissioner. — Shall mean the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions created by virtue of §§ 2001 et seq. of this title.
History —May 12, 1933, No. 55, p. 322, § 3; May 15, 1938, No. 199, p. 387, § 1; May 15, 1950, No. 430, p. 1056, § 1; Sept. 26, 1950, No. 4, p. 294, § 1; Sept. 7, 1961, No. 12, p. 353, § 1; July 23, 1974, No. 165, Part 1, p. 767, § 1; Aug. 28, 1997, No. 108, § 3; Sept. 8, 2000, No. 388, § 1.