If the commissioner finds all of the following with respect to an application for approval of a sale, the commissioner shall approve the application:

(a) That the sale will not result in a monopoly and will not be in furtherance of any combination or conspiracy to monopolize or to attempt to monopolize the banking, savings association, or industrial loan business in any part of this state.

(b) That the sale will not have the effect in any section of this state of substantially lessening competition, tending to create a monopoly, or otherwise being in restraint of trade, or that the anticompetitive effect is clearly outweighed in the public interest by the probable effect of the sale in meeting the convenience and needs of the community to be served.

(c) That the shareholders’ equity of the purchaser will be adequate and that the financial condition of the purchaser will be satisfactory.

(d) That the directors and executive officers of the purchaser will be satisfactory.

(e) That the purchaser will afford reasonable promise of successful operation and that it is reasonable to believe that the purchaser will be operated in a safe and sound manner and in compliance with all applicable laws.

(f) That the sale will be fair, just, and equitable. For purposes of this subdivision, in the case of any term of the sale that has been determined by agreement between the seller and the purchaser in an arm’s length transaction, the commissioner shall find that the term is fair, just, and equitable to the seller and the purchaser.

(g) In the case of a sale where the seller is a California savings association, that the sale will not have a seriously adverse effect on the total availability of financing for housing in the market area of the seller in this state or that any effect of that type is clearly outweighed in the public interest by the probable effect of the sale in meeting the convenience and needs of the community to be served. Nothing in this subdivision authorizes the commissioner to require the purchaser to make financing for housing available.

If the commissioner finds otherwise, the commissioner shall deny the application for approval of the sale.

(Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 1064, Sec. 491. Effective January 1, 1997. Operative July 1, 1997.)