CHAPTER 4. DUTIES AND LIABILITIES OF DIRECTORS. 29-48. Provisions of law defining duties of directors and prescribing penalties for neglect of such duties. 49,50. Interlocking directorates-When forbidden. 51. By-laws to be adopted by directors. 52. Examination by directors. 54. Liability of directors for misman- 55. Liability of directors for assenting to excessive loans. PROVISIONS OF LAW DEFINING DUTIES OF DIRECTORS AND PRESCRIBING PENALTIES FOR NEGLECT OF SUCH DUTIES. 29. APPOINTMENT AND POWERS OF DIRECTORS. (SEC. 5136, U. S. R. S.). Fifth. To elect or appoint directors, and by its board of directors to appoint a president, vice president, cashier, and other officers, define their duties, require bonds of them, and fix the penalty thereof, dismiss such officers or any of them at pleasure, and appoint others to fill their places. Sixth. To prescribe, by its board of directors, by-laws not inconsistent with law, regulating the manner in which its stock shall be transferred, its directors elected or appointed, its officers appointed, its property transferred, its general business conducted, and the privileges granted to it by law exercised and enjoyed. Seventh. To exercise by its board of directors, or duly authorized officers or agents, subject to law, all such incidental powers as shall be necessary to carry on the business of banking; by discounting and negotiating promissory notes, drafts, bills of exchange, and other evidences of debt; by receiving deposits; by buying and selling exchange, coin, and bullion; by loaning money on personal security; and by obtaining, issuing, and circulating notes according to the provisions of this title. 30. NUMBER AND ELECTION OF DIRECTORS- -TERM OF OFFICE. (SEC. 5145, U. S. R. S.) The affairs of each association shall be managed by not less than five directors, who shall be elected by the shareholders at a meeting to be held at any time before the association is authorized by the Comptroller of the Currency to commence the business of banking; and afterward at meetings to be held on such day in January of each year as is specified therefor in the arti cles of association. The directors shall hold office for one year, and until their successors are elected and have qualified. 31. QUALIFICATIONS OF DIRECTORS. (SEC. 5146, U. S. R. S.) Every director must, during his whole term of service be a citizen of the United States, and at least three-fourths of the directors must have resided in the State, Territory, or District in which the association is located, for at least one year immediately preceding their election, and must be residents therein during their continuance in office. Every director must own, in his own right, at least ten shares of the capital stock of the association of which he is a director unless the capital of the bank shall not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars, in which case he must own in his own right at least five shares of such capital stock. Any director who ceases to be the owner of the required number of shares of the stock, or who becomes in any other manner disqualified, shall thereby vacate his place. 32. OATH REQUIRED FROM DIRECTORS. (SEC. 5147, U. S. R. S.) Each director, when appointed or elected, shall take an oath that he will, so far as the duty devolves on him, diligently and honestly administer the affairs of such association, and will not knowingly violate, or willingly permit to be violated, any of the provisions of this title, and that he is the owner in good faith, and in his own right, of the number of shares of stock required by this title, subscribed by him, or standing in his name on the books of the association, and that the same is not hypothecated, or in any way pledged, as security for any loan or debt. Such oath, subscribed by the director making it, and certified by the officer before whom it is taken, shall be immediately transmitted to the Comptroller of the Currency, and shall be filed and preserved in his office. 33. VACANCIES, HOW FILLED. (SEC. 5148, U. S. R. S.) Any vacancy in the board shall be filled by appointment by the remaining directors, and any director so appointed shall hold his place until the next election. 34. LIMIT OF LIABILITIES TO AN ASSOCIATION OF ANY PERSON, FIRM, OR CORPORATION FOR MONEY BORROWED THE DISCOUNT OF BILLS OF EXCHANGE, ETC., NOT MONEY BORROWED. (SEC. 5200, U. S. R. S.) The total liabilities to any association, of any person, or of any company, corporation, or firm for money borrowed, including in the liabilities of a company or firm the liabilities of the several members thereof, shall at no time exceed 10 per centum of the amount of the capital stock of such association, actually paid in and unimpaired, and 10 per centum of its unimpaired surplus fund: Provided, however, That (1) the discount of bills of exchange drawn in good faith against actually existing values, (2) the discount of commercial or business paper actually owned by the person, company, corporation, or firm negotiating the same, and (3) the purchase or discount of any note or notes secured by not less than a like face amount of bonds of the United States issued since April 24, 1917, or certificates of indebtedness of the United States, shall not be considered as money borrowed within the meaning of this section; but the total liabilities to any association, of any person or of any company, corporation, or firm, upon any note or notes purchased or discounted by such association and secured by such bonds or certificates of indebtedness, shall not exceed (except to the extent permitted by rules and regulations prescribed by the Comptroller of the Currency, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury) 10 per centum of such capital stock and surplus fund of such association. NOTE.-See act of March 3, 1919, "Victory Liberty loan act," which provides that the word "Bonds," where it appears in section 5200 of the Revised Statutes as amended, shall be deemed to include notes issued under the "Victory Liberty loan act." 35. DEPOSITS WITH NON MEMBER BANKS SUBJECT TO LIMIT (SEC. 19, FEDERAL RESERVE ACT). No member bank shall keep on deposit with any State bank or trust company which is not a member bank a sum in excess of ten per centum of its own paid-up capital and surplus. No member bank shall act as the medium or agent of a nonmember bank in applying for or receiving discounts from a Federal reserve bank under the provisions of this act, except by permission of the Federal Reserve Board. 36. DIVIDENDS AND SURPLUS FUND. (SEC. 5199, U. S. R. S.) The directors of any association may, semiannually, declare a dividend of so much of the net profits of the association as they shall judge expedient; but each association shall, before the declaration of a dividend, carry one-tenth part of its net profits of the preceding half year to its surplus fund until the same shall amount to twenty per centum of its capital stock. 37. WITHDRAWAL OF CAPITAL PROHIBITED -DIVIDEND NOT TO EXCEED NET PROFITS-BAD DEBTS DEFINED. (SEC. 5204, U. S. R. S.) No association, or any member thereof, shall, during the time it shall continue its banking operations, with draw, or permit to be withdrawn, either in the form of dividends or otherwise, any portion of its capital. If losses have at any time been sustained by any such association, equal to or exceeding its undivided profits then on hand, no dividend shall be made; and no dividend shall ever be made by any association, while it continues its banking operations, to an amount greater than its net profits then on hand, deducting there from its losses and bad debts. All debts due to any association, on which interest is past due and unpaid for a period of six months, unless the same are well secured, and in process of collection, shall be considered bad debts within the meaning of this section. But nothing in this section shall prevent the reduction of the capital stock of the association under section fifty-one hundred and forty-three. 38. PENALTY FOR VIOLATION OF PROVISIONS OF THIS TITLE-VIOLATION, HOW DETERMINED LIABILITY OF DIRECTORS FOR VIOLATION. (SEC. 5239, U. S. R. S.) If the directors of any national banking association shall knowingly violate, or knowingly permit any of the officers, agents, or servants of the association to violate any of the provisions of this title, all the rights, privileges, and franchises of the association shall be thereby forfeited. Such violation shall, however, be determined and adjudged by a proper circuit, district, or territorial, court of the United States, in a suit brought for that purpose by the Comptroller of the Currency, in his own name, before the association shall be declared dissolved. And in cases of such violation, every director who participated in or assented to the same shall be held liable in his personal and individual capacity for all damages which the association, its shareholders, or any other person shall have sustained in consequence of such violation. 39. PENALTY FOR FALSELY CERTIFYING CHECK. (SEC. 5208, U. S. R. S.) It shall be unlawful for any officer, director, agent, or employee of any Federal reserve bank, or of any member bank as defined in the act of December twenty-third, nineteen hundred and thirteen, known as the Federal reserve act, to certify any check drawn upon such Federal reserve bank or member bank unless the person, firm, or corporation drawing the check has on deposit with such Federal reserve bank or member bank, at the time such check is certified, an amount of money not less than the amount specified in such check. Any check so certified by a duly authorized officer, director, agent, or employee shall be a good and valid obligation against such Federal reserve bank or member bank; but the act of any officer, director, agent, or employee of any such Federal reserve bank or member bank in violation of this section shall, in the discre tion of the Federal Reserve Board, subject such Federal reserve bank to the penalties imposed by section eleven, subsection (h), of the Federal reserve act, and shall subject such member bank if a national bank to the liabilities and proceedings on the part of the Comptroller of the Currency provided for in section fifty-two hundred and thirtyfour, Revised Statutes, and shall, in the discretion of the Federal Reserve Board, subject any other member bank to the penalties imposed by section nine of said Federal reserve act for the violation of any of the provisions of said act. Any officer, director, agent, or employee of any Federal reserve bank or member bank who shall willfully violate the provisions of this section, or who shall resort to any device, or receive any fictitious obligation, directly or collaterally, in order to evade the provisions thereof, or who shall certify a check before the amount thereof shall have been regularly entered to the credit of the drawer upon the books of the bank, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, on conviction thereof in any district court of the United States, be fined not more than $5,000, or shall be imprisoned for not more than five years, or both, in the discretion of the court. 40. PENALTY FOR EMBEZZLEMENT, MAKING FALSE ENTRIES IN BOOKS, REPORTS, ETC. (SEC. 5209, U. S. R. S.) Any officer, director, agent, or employee of any Federal reserve bank, or of any member bank as defined in the act of December twenty-third, nineteen hundred and thirteen, known as the Federal reserve act, who embezzles, abstracts, or willfully misapplies any of the moneys, funds, or credits of such Federal reserve bank or member bank, or who, without authority from the directors of such Federal reserve bank or member bank, issues or puts in circulation any of the notes of such Federal reserve bank or member bank, or who, without such authority, issues or puts forth any certificate of deposit, draws any order or bill of exchange, makes any acceptance, assigns any note, bond, draft, bill of exchange, mortgage, judgment, or decree, or who makes any false entry in any book, report, or statement of such Federal reserve bank or member bank, with intent in any case to injure or defraud such Federal reserve bank or member bank, or any other company, body politic or corporate, or any individual person, or to deceive any officer of such Federal reserve bank or member bank, or the Comptroller of the Currency, or any agent or examiner appointed to examine the affairs of such Federal reserve bank or member bank, or the Federal Reserve Board; and every receiver of a national banking association who, with like intent to defraud or injure, embezzles, abstracts, purloins, or willfully misapplies any of the moneys, funds, or as |