§ 15 — Foreign banks; certificate to transact business; housing partnership fund

Section 15. No foreign bank shall transact a banking business in the commonwealth unless authorized under this chapter. The commissioner may grant a certificate authorizing a foreign bank to transact banking business in the commonwealth in accordance with this section. The commissioner may condition said certificate upon the performance of auditing requirements and shall require all applications to be accompanied by an investigation fee, the amount of which shall be determined annually by the secretary of administration and finance pursuant to section 3B of chapter 7, but shall not be less than $10,000. Any foreign bank transacting banking business in the commonwealth pursuant to such certificate shall be subject to the commissioner and shall comply with all laws of the commonwealth applicable to a bank.In deciding whether or not to issue such certificate, the commissioner shall determine whether the applicant is adequately capitalized, as defined in the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, 12 U.S.C. section 1831o, whether competition among banking institutions will be unreasonably affected and whether public convenience and advantage will be promoted. In making such determination, the commissioner shall, at a minimum, consider the applicant's record of compliance with all applicable community reinvestment requirements and require a showing of net new benefits. For the purposes of this section, the term ''net new benefits'' shall include initial capital investments, job creation plans, consumer and business services, including small business loans, farm loans, commitments to maintain and open branch offices within a bank's delineated local community, as such term is used within section 14 of chapter 167 and such other matters as the commissioner may deem necessary or advisable.The commissioner shall not issue such certificate until the commissioner has received notice from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Fund established by section 35 of chapter 405 of the acts of 1985, that arrangements satisfactory to the fund have been made for such foreign bank to make 90/100 of 1 per cent of its assets in the commonwealth available for call by the fund for a period of 10 years to provide loans to said 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 of the benefits and assistance provided by said fund under funds made available by this section shall be to persons with incomes of less than 80 per cent of the area-wide median income as determined from time to time by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development; provided, however, that at least 25 per cent of such assistance shall be to persons with incomes of less than 50 per cent of said area-wide median income. All loans made to the fund by such banks shall be deemed to be legal investments for such banks; 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 lost opportunity costs, incurred by the bank in making funds available to the fund; provided, however, that the fund may, by agreement with such bank, accept a reduction in the amount of said call based upon a lower rate of interest; and (b) no loan to the fund shall be secured in any manner unless all outstanding loans to the fund shall be secured equably and ratably in proportion to the unpaid balance of such loans and in the same manner.Said 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 bank, the amount loaned by each to the fund and the rate of interest thereon. Said report shall be filed within 60 days of any such call.No such certificate shall be issued until the commissioner has received written assurances from such foreign bank that a resident or residents of the commonwealth shall occupy a position of an executive officer in any resulting bank or branch. For the purposes of this section, the term ''executive officer'' shall have the same meaning as in section 4 of chapter 167A.