§ 23-48-309 — Names of state banks and subsidiary trust companies

(a) (1) Prior to the formation of a state bank, or prior to the consummation of an interstate merger transaction, a person may reserve the exclusive use of a corporate name for a bank by delivering an application to the Bank Commissioner for filing. (2) The application must set forth the name and address of the applicant and the name proposed to be reserved. (3) If the commissioner finds that the corporate name applied for is available, he or she shall reserve the name for the applicant's exclusive use for a nonrenewable two-hundred-seventy-day period. (b) The owner of a reserved corporate name may transfer the reservation to another person by delivering to the commissioner a signed notice of transfer that states the name and address of the transferee. (c) No state bank, registered out-of-state bank, or subsidiary trust company shall conduct any business in this state under a fictitious name unless it first files with the commissioner a form supplied or approved by the commissioner giving the following information: (1) The fictitious name under which business is being or will be conducted by the applicant entity; (2) A brief statement of the character of business to be conducted under the fictitious name; and (3) The name, home state, and location, giving city and street address, of the registered office in this state of the applicant entity. (d) (1) Each form shall be executed in duplicate and filed with the commissioner, who shall maintain an index of the filings. (2) The commissioner shall retain one (1) counterpart, and the other counterpart, bearing the file marks of the commissioner, shall be returned to the state bank, registered out-of-state bank, or subsidiary trust company. (3) However, the commissioner shall not accept the filing if the proposed fictitious name is the same as, or confusingly similar to, the name of any bank, domestic corporation, or any foreign corporation authorized to do business in this state, or any name reserved for any such entity. (e) Copies of the filed forms, certified by the commissioner, shall be admitted in evidence when the question of filing may be material. (f) (1) If, after filing hereunder, the applicant is dissolved, or, being a foreign corporation or registered out-of-state bank, surrenders or forfeits its rights to do business in Arkansas or ceases to do business in Arkansas under the specified fictitious name, the bank or subsidiary trust company shall be obligated to file with the commissioner a cancellation of its privilege under this section. (2) If the cancellation is not filed, the commissioner, upon satisfactory evidence, may cancel the privilege, in which event the cancellation shall be certified by the commissioner, who will file the same without a fee. (g) (1) If a state bank, registered out-of-state bank, or subsidiary trust company which has not filed hereunder has heretofore or shall hereafter become a party to any contract, deed, conveyance, assignment, or instrument of encumbrance in which the bank or subsidiary trust company is referred to exclusively by a fictitious name, the obligations imposed upon the bank or subsidiary trust company under the instrument and the right sought to be conferred on third parties thereunder may be enforced against it. (2) But the rights accruing to the bank or subsidiary trust company under the instrument may not be enforced by the bank or subsidiary trust company in the courts of this state until it has complied with this section and pays to the commissioner a civil penalty of three hundred dollars ($300).

Legislative History

Acts 1997, No. 89, § 1; 1997, No. 408, § 9.