§ 278. Exchange of mortgage investment. Trustees, executors, administrators, guardians, committees, conservators, receivers, the town treasurer of any town and other persons and corporations holding trust funds, corporations and private bankers organized under or subject to the provisions of the banking law, the superintendent of financial services as conservator, liquidator or rehabilitator of any such corporation or private banker organized under and subject to the provisions of the banking law, persons, partnerships, and corporations organized under or subject to the provisions of the insurance law, the superintendent of financial services as conservator, liquidator or rehabilitator of any such person, partnership or corporation organized under or subject to the provisions of the insurance law, and other domestic corporations, that shall have made or shall hold an investment, whether with or without a specified ratio of real property security, in a bond secured by mortgage on real property or share or part thereof, whether guaranteed or not, may, at any time without an order of the court or other authority, exchange, prior or subsequent to maturity, such bond and mortgage or share or part thereof and any rights in respect thereto, for bonds of Home Owners' Loan Corporation, a corporation created under home owners' loan act of nineteen hundred and thirty-three, and may hold such bonds of Home Owners' Loan Corporation as authorized and lawful investments for any and all purposes, notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law of this state inconsistent with the provisions of this section.