be transferred to the banking department; and hereafter all copies of certificates of association, formed pursuant to such laws, shall be filed in the office of the superintendent of the banking department, who shall furnish, on payment of the same fees now chargeable in the secretary's office, all certificates in relation thereto as if the same had been originally filed in his office. All the powers conferred upon or duties required by any law of this state to be performed by the secretary of state, in relation to banking associations, shall hereafter be performed by the superintendent of the banking department. CHAP. XX. CHAP. 242. AN ACT amendatory of the act entitled "An act authorizing the business of banking," passed April 18, 1838, and the acts amending the same. PASSED April 15, 1854. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: agent. $1. The person designated by the superintendent of the Examining bank department, under the existing laws, to examine the books, papers and affairs of any bank, banking association or individual banker, shall take and file in the office of the clerk of the county where he resides, the oath of office prescribed in the constitution, and he shall have authority to examine on oath any individual banker, and the officers, agents, partners and clerks of such banker, and of any bank or banking association, touching the matters which he shall be directed to inquire into; and any willful false swearing in any such examination shall be perjury. And when directed by said superintendent, such person shall inquire whether any banker transacts the business of banking at the city, town or village where the circulating notes of such individual banker purport to have been issued and dated; and whether any bank or banking association transacts the business of banking at the place designated in its charter or certificate of association; and whether such banking business is conducted in the manner prescribed by law. mon any testify be $2. Such person shall have power to summon, in writing May sumunder his hand, any inhabitant of the county in which he person to may be conducting the inquiry to appear before him and fore him. testify in relation to the same. If the party so summoned shall refuse or neglect to appear at the time and place specified in such summons, or having appeared shall refuse to be sworn, or shall refuse to answer any pertinent and legal question, he shall forfeit the sum of one hundred dollars, to be sued for and recovered, with costs, by the superintendent of the bank department, in his name of office, and to be paid PART I. Unsound banks and banking. Publication of report. Certificate to be filed by indivi dual bankors. into the treasury, to defray the general expenses of the bank department; and upon such neglect or refusal being duly proved by the person conducting such inquiry, before any justice of the supreme court, if such justice be satisfied that the party so neglecting or refusing ought to be examined touching the matters of such inquiry, he shall by warrant commit such party to the jail of the county, there to remain in close custody until he shall submit to appear, or testify or answer, as the case may require. $ 3. If it shall appear from such examination and report that any bank, banking association or individual banker is in an unsound or unsafe condition to do banking business or that the business of banking is not transacted by such bank, association or banker at the place where said circulating notes are dated and purport to be issued, or is not transacted in the manner prescribed by law, it shall be the duty of the superintendent to withhold and refuse to issue or deliver any registered notes to such bank, association or banker, and to retain the interest on all securities held in trust for such bank, association or banker until such time as he shall be satisfied that such bank, association or banker is in a sound and safe condition to do a banking business, and that the business of banking is transacted by such bank, association or banker at the place where their circulating notes are dated and purport to be issued. S4. Whenever the superintendent shall deem it proper, a copy of any such report shall be published in the state paper, and in at least two daily newspapers in the city of New York. The reasonable costs and expenses of every such examination and publication shall be paid by the bank, association or banker whose affairs are examined, in the manner provided in the "Act to organize a bank department." $5. The second and third sections of chapter two hundred and eighty-one of the Laws of eighteen hundred and fortyfour are hereby extended and declared to be applicable to every individual banker who is now doing business or shall hereafter do business under the general banking laws of this state, or who has received or hereafter shall receive circulating notes under the said laws; and the certificate required by the third section of the said act shall be filed by every individual banker now doing business as aforesaid, and who has not already filed the same, within sixty days after this act shall take effect, and by every individual banker who shall hereafter desire to obtain circulating notes under the general banking laws of this state, previous to the delivery of any such notes to him. In case of a notice being filed with the superintendent of the bank department, of any change of residence of any individual banker, and of the place of doing his business, the superintendent shall publish a notice thereof in the state paper, and in such other newspapers as he shall direct, at the expense of such banker. CHAP. XX. rested to be ble. § 6. When it shall appear by the return of any individual Persons banker, or by the report of any person designated by the jointly intesuperintendent of the bank department, that any person is jointly liainterested with such individual banker, directly or indirectly, in the securities deposited by him for the purpose of obtaining circulating notes, or in the business of circulating such notes, or in the benefits and advantages thereof, the said superintendent shall withhold all interest and dividends on the securities deposited with him by such banker, and all circulating notes from him, until such banker shall have filed in the bank department a certificate signed by every person so returned or reported as interested as aforesaid, and acknowledged by him in the manner prescribed by law to entitle deeds of land to be recorded, stating that such person is interested with such individual banker in the circulating notes obtained or to be obtained by him, and in the benefits and advantages of circulating the same, which certificate shall be evidence in all courts and places that the person so signing and acknowledging the same is a general partner with the said original banker in the business of banking, and as such is liable with him individually for all the debts and obligations created or made by such individual banker in the said business. $7. In the publication of the abstracts of the quarterly Abstracts. returns of individual bankers, the superintendent of the bank department shall arrange them in a separate class, and shall specify the name and place of business of each, and the names and residence of the general partners. $8. The circulating notes delivered to individual bankers Notes, how shall express only the individual liability of the banker issuing signed. them, and shall be signed by him only, and not by any attorney or agent; and any banker or person acting as his attorney or agent, who shall violate any provision of this section, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each offence, to be recovered in the name of the people of this state, with costs, and to be paid into the treasury to defray the general expenses of the bank department. banking forbidden $9. It shall not be lawful for any individual banker, having Sale of circulating notes obtained under the general banking laws of business this state, to sell or transfer the business of banking, upon the securities deposited by him, to any person or persons; and until such business shall be closed by the return of the circulating notes issued, and the delivery of the securities deposited, the same shall be conducted only in the name of the individual banker by whom the said securities were deposited, and he shall continue individually liable for the payment of all circulating notes delivered to him. PART L Transfers of stocks and mort gages. Duty of treasurer. Report of treasurer. Treasurer to counter. fer, &c. CHAP. 103. AN ACT to amend the act to organise a bank department, passed April twelfth, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, and prescribing the powers and duties of the superin tendent. PASSED March 14, 1857; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: [Section 1 amends Laws of 1851, ch. 164. § 2. Ante, p. 168. S2. No transfer of stocks or mortgages now held or hereafter received by the superintendent of the banking department, as security for circulating notes issued for the same by him, shall be deemed valid or of binding force or effect, unless the same be countersigned by the treasurer of the state, or in his absence from his office or inability to perform the duties of his office, by his deputy. It shall be the duty of the treasurer aforesaid to keep in his office, or in the office of the superintendent of the banking department, a book, in which shall be entered the name of every bank, banking association or individual banker, from whose account such transfer of securities is made by the superintendent, and the name of the party to whom such transfer is made, unless such transfer shall be made in blank, in which case the fact shall be stated in said book, and the par value of any stock so transferred, shall be entered therein, and the amount for which every mortgage transferred is held by the superintendent, and the name of the party to whom assigned shall also be therein entered; and it shall be the duty of the treasurer, immediately upon countersigning and entering the same, to advise by mail the bank, banking association or individual banker, from whose account such transfer was made, of the kind of security and the amount of the same thus transferred. S3. The treasurer shall present, in his annual report to the legislature, the total amount of such transfers or assignments countersigned by him. $ 4. It shall be the duty of the treasurer, or in his absence and deputy from his office, or in case of his inability to perform the duties sign, trans- of his office, of his deputy, to countersign and enter upon the book in the manner aforesaid, every transfer or assignment of any securities held by the said superintendent, presented for his signature; and the treasurer shall have, at all times during office hours, access to the books of the superintendent of the banking department, for the purpose of ascertaining the correctness of the transfer or assignment presented to him to countersign, and the superintendent shall have access to the book above mentioned, kept by the treasurer, during office hours, to ascertain the correctness of the entries upon the same. CHAP. XX. $5. The treasurer shall, for the services required by this salary of act, receive the annual salary of one thousand dollars, to be treasurer. paid in the same manner as the salary of the superintendent, and the same shall be charged in the general expenses of the bank department. CHAP. 189. AN ACT in relation to banks, banking associations, individual bankers, and the bank department. PASSED March 28, 1857. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: change. $1. Whenever a banking association shall lawfully, by In care of virtue of its articles of association or other proper authority, make any change in any of the particulars required to be stated in the certificate of association, the change shall not be of any force or validity until a certificate thereof, executed Certificates by the president and cashier, under the corporate seal of the corded and association, shall have been recorded and a copy filed, in the same manner as the certificate of association is by law required to be recorded and filed. to be re filed. sident or agents. $2. It shall be the duty of either the president or cashier Duty of preof every bank and banking association, and of every indi- cashier. vidual banker, having securities deposited in the office of the superintendent of the banking department of this state, once or more during each fiscal year, and at such time or times during the ordinary business hours as said officer, banking association or banker may select, to examine and compare such securities with the books of said department, and if found correct, to execute to the superintendent a receipt, setting forth in the same the different kinds and the amounts thereof, and that the same are in the possession and custody of the superintendent at the date of such receipt. In case of Authorized the inability of an individual banker to make such examination, he shall make the same through an authorised agent appointed by him in writing, whose receipt shall have the same force and validity as if executed by him in person. If any In case of bank, banking association or individual banker, shall refuse or neglect to make such examination during the fiscal year aforesaid, the comptroller, secretary of state, and the super- ler. &c., to intendent of the banking department, shall appoint some appoint suitable and discreet person as agent for such bank, banking association or individual banker who shall have neglected or refused to make the aforesaid examination; and such agent Duty. shall make such examination, and if the securities so held by the superintendent shall be found to agree with the books of the department, shall execute the receipt before mentioned, refusal. Comptrol agent. |