17:9A-1. Definitions

1. As used in this act, and except as otherwise expressly provided in this act:

(1) "Bank" shall include the following:

(a) Every corporation heretofore organized pursuant to the act entitled "An act concerning banks and banking (Revision of 1899)," approved March 24, 1899;

(b) Every corporation heretofore organized pursuant to the act entitled "An act concerning trust companies (Revision of 1899)," approved March 24, 1899;

(c) Every corporation heretofore organized pursuant to chapter 4 of Title 17 of the Revised Statutes;

(d) Every corporation, other than a savings bank, heretofore authorized by any general or special law of this State to transact business as a bank or as a trust company, or as both;

(e) Every corporation hereafter organized pursuant to article 2 of this act;

(2) "Banking institution" shall mean a bank, an out-of-State bank having a branch office in this State, an out-of-country bank having a branch office in this State, savings bank, and a national banking association having its principal or a branch office in this State;

(3) "Board of managers" of a savings bank shall include the board of trustees of a savings bank;

(4) "Capital stock" shall include both common stock and preferred stock;

(5) "Certificate of incorporation," unless the context requires otherwise, shall mean:

(a) The certificate of incorporation, together with all amendments thereto, of every bank and savings bank organized pursuant to any general law of this State;

(b) The charter, together with all amendments thereto, of every bank and savings bank organized pursuant to any special law of this State;

(6) "Commissioner" shall mean the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance of New Jersey;

(7) "Department" shall mean the Department of Banking and Insurance of New Jersey;

(8) "Fiduciary" shall include trustee, executor, administrator, receiver, guardian, assignee, and every other person occupying any other lawful office or employment of trust;

(9) "Manager" of a savings bank shall include a trustee of a savings bank;

(10) "Municipality" shall mean a city, town, township, village, and borough of this State;

(11) "Population" shall mean the population as determined by the latest federal census or as determined by the commissioner from other information which he may deem reliable;

(12) "Qualified bank" shall mean:

(a) A bank or an out-of-State bank with a branch office in New Jersey which has heretofore been authorized or which shall hereafter be authorized to exercise any of the powers authorized by section 28 of P.L.1948, c.67 (C.17:9A-28);

(b) A savings bank which has heretofore been authorized or which shall hereafter be authorized to exercise any of the powers authorized by section 28 of P.L.1948, c.67 (C.17:9A-28); and

(c) A national banking association having its principal or a branch office in this State authorized to act as a fiduciary;

(13) "Savings bank" shall include the following:

(a) Every corporation heretofore organized pursuant to the act entitled "An act concerning savings banks," approved April 12, 1876;

(b) Every corporation heretofore organized pursuant to the act entitled "An act concerning savings banks," approved May 2, 1906;

(c) Every corporation heretofore organized pursuant to chapter 6 of Title 17 of the Revised Statutes;

(d) Every corporation, other than a bank, authorized by any general or special law of this State to carry on the business of a savings bank or institution or society for savings;

(e) Every corporation hereafter organized pursuant to article 3 of P.L.1948, c.67 (C.17:9A-7 and 17:9A-8) or P.L.1982, c.9 (C.17:9A-8.1 et seq.);

(14) "Branch office" of a bank or savings bank shall mean an office, unit, station, facility, terminal, space or receptacle at a fixed location other than a principal office and other than a trust office, however designated, at which any business that may be conducted in a principal office of a bank or savings bank may be transacted. "Branch office" includes a full branch office and a minibranch office, but does not include a trust office or a communication terminal facility;

(15) "Full branch office" means a branch office of a bank or savings bank not subject to the limitations or restrictions imposed upon minibranch offices or communication terminal facilities;

(16) "Minibranch office" means a branch office of a bank or savings bank which does not occupy more than 500 square feet of floor space and which does not contain more than four teller stations, manned by employees of the bank or savings bank;

(17) "Communication terminal facility" means a facility of a bank or savings bank which is unmanned and which consists of equipment, structures or systems, by means of which information relating to financial services rendered to the public is transmitted and through which transactions with banks and savings banks are consummated, either instantaneously or otherwise;

(18) "Secondary mortgage loan" means a loan made to an individual, association, joint venture, partnership, limited partnership association, or any other group of individuals however organized, except a corporation, which is secured in whole or in part by a lien upon any interest in real property, including, but not limited to, shares of stock in a cooperative corporation, created by a security agreement, including a mortgage indenture, or any other similar instrument or document, which real property is subject to one or more prior mortgage liens and which is used as a dwelling, including a dual purpose or combination type dwelling which is also used as a business or commercial establishment, and has accommodations for not more than six families, except that a loan which: (a) is to be repaid in 90 days or less; (b) is taken as security for a home repair contract executed in accordance with the provisions of P.L.1960, c.41 (C.17:16C-62 et seq.); or (c) is the result of the private sale of a dwelling, if title to the dwelling is in the name of the seller and the seller has resided in said dwelling for at least one year, if the buyer is purchasing said dwelling for his own residence and, as part of the purchase price, executes a secondary mortgage in favor of the seller, shall not be included within the definition of "secondary mortgage loan";

(19) With respect to savings banks, "director" and "board of directors" may be used to mean "manager" and "board of managers," respectively;

(20) "Foreign bank" means a company, other than a banking institution, organized under the laws of the United States, another state, or a foreign government, which is authorized by the laws under which it is organized to exercise some or all of the powers specified in paragraph (4) of section 24 of P.L.1948, c.67 (C.17:9A-24), paragraphs (4), (5) and (13) of section 25 of P.L.1948, c.67 (C.17:9A-25), and paragraphs (3) through (9), inclusive, of section 28 of P.L.1948, c.67 (C.17:9A-28);

(21) "Home state" means:

(a) with respect to a national bank, the state in which the main office is located; and

(b) with respect to a state bank, the state by which the bank is chartered;

(22) "Host state" means, with respect to a bank, a state, other than the home state of the bank, in which the bank maintains, or seeks to establish and maintain, a branch office.

For purposes of this subsection and subsection (21), "bank" means a State bank as defined in the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, 12 U.S.C. s.1813(a)(2);

(23) "Out-of-State bank" means a state bank, as defined in the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, 12 U.S.C. s.1813(a)(2), with a home state other than New Jersey;

(24) "Out-of-country bank" means a bank chartered under the laws of a country other than the United States;

(25) "Interstate merger transaction" means:

(1) The merger or consolidation of banks with different home states, and the conversion of branches of any bank involved in the merger or consolidation into branches of the resulting bank; or

(2) The purchase of all or substantially all of the assets, the assumption of all or substantially all of the liabilities, or both, including all or substantially all of the branches, of a bank whose home state is different from the home state of the acquiring bank;

(26) "State" means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, any territory of the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, the Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands;

(27) "Resulting bank" means a state or federally chartered bank or state chartered savings bank that has resulted from an interstate merger transaction pursuant to P.L.1948, c.67 (C.17:9A-1 et seq.);

(28) "Trust office" means an office, unit, station, facility, or space at a fixed location, other than a principal office, however designated, at which business that may be conducted at the principal office may be transacted and the primary activities conducted include the transaction of trust business as defined in paragraph (2) of subsection D of section 316 of P.L.1948, c.67 (C.17:9A-316), but at which no deposits may be taken other than assets to be held in trust.

L.1948,c.67,s.1; amended 1949, c.44; 1975, c.148, s.1; 1981, c.74, s.3; 1985, c.528, s.1; 1992, c.187, s.1; 1996, c.17, s.2; 1999, c.159, s.2; 1999, c.252, s.1.