Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 3 of chapter 167G of the General Laws, as appearing in the 1984 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out subsection 5 and inserting in place thereof the following subsection:-

5. Any association or corporation authorized to do a banking business and to exercise trust powers in the commonwealth, may hold securities held by it as agent or custodian for any fiduciary, or in a fiduciary capacity pursuant to the exercise of such trust powers in a manner such that, without certification as to ownership attached, certificates representing securities of the same class of the same issuer and from time to time constituting assets of particular fiduciary accounts are held in bulk, including, to the extent feasible, the merging of certificates of small denomination into one or more certificates of large denomination, provided that such association or corporation shall be subject to such rules and regulations as may from time to time be issued in the case of national banking associations, by the comptroller of the currency, and in the case of all other such associations and corporations, by the commissioner. Such association or corporation shall, on demand by any court, fiduciary, co-fiduciary, beneficiary, or other interested party to an accounting, or by the attorney for any such fiduciary, co-fiduciary, beneficiary, or other interested party to an accounting, certify in writing the securities held by such association or corporation as such fiduciary, agent or custodian.

SECTION 2. Subsection 6 of said section 3 of said chapter 167G, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out, in line 49, the word "by".

SECTION 3. Subsection 7 of said section 3 of said chapter 167G, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the word "fiduciary", in line 94, the words:- , agent or custodian.

SECTION 4. Said section 3 of said chapter 167G, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by inserting after subsection 7 the following subsection:-

7A. Any association or corporation authorized to do a banking business and to exercise trust powers in the commonwealth, while acting as a fiduciary or as an agent or custodian for any other fiduciary, and any individual fiduciary, may hold securities in the form of uncertificated securities, as defined in section 8-102 of chapter one hundred and six. Ownership of, and other interests in, such securities may be transferred by bookkeeping entry on the books maintained for that purpose by or on behalf of the issuers of such securities. The records of any such association, corporation, or individual fiduciary shall at all times show the name of the party for whose account the securities are held. Such association, corporation, or individual fiduciary shall, upon demand by any court, fiduciary, co-fiduciary, beneficiary, or other interested party to an accounting, or by the attorney for any such fiduciary, co-fiduciary, beneficiary, or other interested party to an accounting, certify in writing that the securities are held by it as such fiduciary, agent, or custodian, and shall therein hold harmless any interested party who has relied on such certification.

SECTION 5. Subsection 8 of said section 3 of said chapter 167G, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the word "fiduciary", in line 117, the words:- , agent or custodian.