Section 26A. Any one or more such corporations and any one or more savings banks, as defined in section one of chapter one hundred and sixty-eight may merge or consolidate into a single co-operative bank or into a single savings bank upon such terms as shall have been approved by a vote of at least two-thirds of the board of directors of each corporation and of the board of trustees of each savings bank, and as shall have been approved in writing by the commissioner. The terms of any such merger or consolidation shall be approved by the shareholders of each corporation and corporators of each savings bank in the manner prescribed herein. A request for such approval by the commissioner shall be accompanied by an investigation fee the amount of which shall be determined annually by the commissioner of administration, a copy of the terms of any agreement reached by the respective boards of directors and trustees, and certified copies of the votes of such boards. If the commissioner, after such notice and hearing as he may require, is satisfied that a merger or consolidation can be effected on terms approved by him and he finds that such merger or consolidation is in the interests of the shareholders and depositors of the institutions concerned, such merger or consolidation may be approved by him subject to his direction. In making a finding that any such merger or consolidation is in the interests of depositors and shareholders, the commissioner shall also determine whether or not competition among banking institutions will be unreasonably affected and whether or not public convenience and advantage will be promoted. In making such determination, the commissioner shall consider, but not be limited to, a showing of net new benefits. For the purpose of this section, the term “net new benefits” shall mean initial capital investments, job creation plans, consumer and business services, commitments to maintain and open branch offices within a bank’s delineated local community, as such term is used within section fourteen of chapter one hundred and sixty-seven, and such other matters as the commissioner may determine. Before becoming effective, any merger or consolidation authorized by this section, hereinafter sometimes referred to as a “consolidation”, shall have been approved by a vote of at least two-thirds of the shareholders of each corporation present, qualified to vote and voting at meetings specially called to consider the subject, and approved by a vote of at least two-thirds of the corporators of each savings bank voting at meetings of each savings bank specially called for that purpose. Notice for such meetings shall be given in accordance with the relevant provisions of section twenty-four of this chapter and section nine A of chapter one hundred and sixty-eight.
A certificate under the hands of the presidents and clerks or other duly authorized officers of the consolidating corporation, respectively, stating that all requirements of this section have been complied with shall be submitted to the commissioner who, if he shall approve such consolidation, shall endorse his approval upon such certificate. No such transaction under this section shall be consummated until arrangements satisfactory to any excess deposit insurer of each such bank have been made and notice thereof has been received by the commissioner.
Articles of consolidation or merger shall be filed with the state secretary which shall set forth the due adoption of an agreement of consolidation or merger and shall state: (i) the names of the corporations and the name of the resulting or surviving corporation; (ii) the effective date of the consolidation or merger determined pursuant to the agreement of consolidation or merger; and, (iii) any amendment to the articles of organization of the surviving corporation to be effected pursuant to the agreement of merger. Such articles of consolidation or merger shall be signed by the president or a vice president and the clerk or an assistant clerk of each corporation, who shall state under the penalties of perjury that the agreement of consolidation or merger has been duly executed on behalf of such corporation and has been approved as required.
The form on which articles of consolidation or merger are filed shall also contain the following information which shall not for any purpose be treated as a permanent part of the articles of organization of the resulting or surviving corporation:
(1) the post office address of the initial principal office of the resulting or surviving corporation in the commonwealth;
(2) the name, residence and post office address of each of the initial trustees or directors and the president, treasurer and clerk of the resulting or surviving corporation;
(3) the fiscal year of the resulting or surviving corporation initially adopted;
(4) the date initially fixed in the by-laws for the annual meeting of the shareholders or members of the resulting or surviving corporation.
The consolidation or merger shall become effective when the articles of consolidation or merger are filed in accordance with section six of chapter one hundred and fifty-six B, unless said articles specify a later effective date not more than thirty days after such filing, in which event the consolidation or merger shall become effective on such later date. Upon consolidation of any such corporation with another, as herein provided:
1. The corporate existence of all but one of the consolidating institutions shall be discontinued and consolidated into that of the remaining institution, which shall continue. All and singular the rights, privileges and franchises of each discontinuing institution and its right, title and interest to all property of whatever kind, whether real, personal or mixed, and things in action, and every right, privilege, interest or asset of conceivable value or benefit then existing which would inure to it under the unconsolidated existence, shall be deemed fully and finally, and without any right of reversion, transferred to or vested in the continuing institution, without further act or deed, and such continuing institution shall have and hold the same in its own right as fully as if the same was possessed and held by the discontinuing institution from which it was, by operation of the provisions hereof, transferred, and other provisions of law relative to limitations on the number of directors, corporators or trustees and on the investment of funds of such institutions shall not apply.
2. A discontinuing institution’s rights, obligations and relations to any shareholder, or depositor, creditor, trustee or beneficiary of any trust, or other person, as of the effective date of the consolidation, shall remain unimpaired, and the continuing institution shall, by the consolidation, succeed to all such relations, obligations and liabilities, as though it had itself assumed the relation or incurred the obligation or liability; and its liabilities and obligations to creditors existing for any cause whatsoever shall not be impaired by the consolidation; nor shall any obligation or liability of any shareholder or depositor in any such institution, continuing or discontinuing, which is party to the consolidation, be affected by any consolidation, but such obligations and liabilities shall continue as fully and to the same extent as the same existed before the consolidation and the provisions relative to the limitations on shares and deposits, shall not apply.
3. A pending action or other judicial proceeding to which any of the consolidating institutions is a party shall not be deemed to have abated or to have discontinued by reason of the consolidation, but may be prosecuted to final judgment, order or decree in the same manner as if the consolidation has not been made; or the continuing institution may be substituted as a party to any such action or proceeding to which the discontinuing institution was a party, and any judgment, order or decree may be rendered for or against the continuing institution that might have been rendered for or against such discontinuing institution if such consolidation had not occurred.
4. After such consolidation, a foreclosure of a mortgage begun by any discontinuing institution may be completed by the continuing institution, and publication begun by the discontinuing institution may be continued in the name of the discontinuing institution. Any certificate of possession, affidavit of sale or foreclosure deed relative to such foreclosure shall be executed by the proper officers in behalf of whichever of such institutions actually took possession or made the sale, but any such instrument executed in behalf of the continuing institution shall recite that it is the successor of the discontinuing institution which commenced the foreclosure.
5. A new name may be adopted as the name of the continuing institution at the special meetings called as herein provided, and it shall become the name of the continuing institution upon the approval of the consolidation, without further action under the laws of the commonwealth as to change or adoption of a new name on the part of the continuing institution.
6. Any consolidation may be approved and effected pursuant to this section, notwithstanding that the percentage which the aggregate value of the surplus and other reserves, of any of the consolidating institutions, bears to its liabilities including share liabilities, exceeds such percentage of any of the other consolidating institutions, and any consolidating institution having such an excess of percentage shall not be required to pay an extra dividend or make any other distribution to its shareholders or depositors.
The offices and depots of any co-operative bank and the offices of any savings bank merged or consolidated under this section, may be maintained as branch offices or depots, respectively, of the continuing institution with the written permission of, and under such conditions, if any, as may be approved by the commissioner.
If the consolidating corporations have main offices in different counties, the main office of the continuing corporation shall be the main office of that consolidating corporation which has the greater total assets on the date on which the merger or consolidation is approved by the board of the last consolidating corporation so to approve; provided, however, that upon a determination by the commissioner that such consolidation is not for the purpose of circumventing any geographic restrictions on the establishment of branch offices, he may allow the main office of the consolidating corporation which has the lesser total assets on such date to be the main office of the continuing corporation.
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