[ Act No. 3174, November 24, 1924 ]

AN ACT TO REHABILITATE THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK, MAKING CERTAIN APPROPRIATIONS FOR THIS PURPOSE AND AMENDING THE CHARTER OF SAID BANK CONTAINED IN ACT NUMBERED TWENTY-SIX HUNDRED AND TWELVE, AS AMENDED, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

Be it enacted by the Senate and House  of Representatives of the Philippines in Legislature assembled and by the authority of the same:

SECTION  1. The  authorized paid-up capital stock of the Philippine National Bank is hereby reduced to one hundred thousand shares of the value at  par of  one hundred pesos each,  which  number shall  include  the  shares  at present held by the public: Provided, That the Bank may purchase the shares  held privately at the  price at which they were quoted on  the  date of  the  registration  of  the sale in the books of the Bank, provided such  price does not exceed their value at par.   The Board of Directors, with the approval of the Secretary of Finance, shall determine what was the price  so quoted.  No stock shall be sold to the public hereafter.

SEC. 2. The  National Bank is hereby authorized and  directed, subject to the supervision of the Insular  Treasurer and Insular Auditor, to eliminate its losses from its assets, together with the  fixed deposits of the Government of the Philippine  Islands in the Bank at the time of the approval of this Act, excluding from said fixed deposits a sufficient sum to purchase  all stock  of  the Bank then held  by the public;  and the sum necessary for  this purpose is hereby appropriated out of the general funds of the Government of the Philippine  Islands not  otherwise appropriated and on fixed deposit in the National Bank: Provided, however, That the National Bank shall pay to the Government of the Philippine Islands during the year nineteen hundred and twenty-five the sum of one million  five hundred thousand pesos as interest received for the fixed deposits herein-before appropriated.

SEC. 3. The Government of the Philippine Islands hereby guarantees the final redemption and payment of the circulating notes of the National Bank, and  the Insular Treasurer  is hereby authorized and directed to set aside from the proceeds of the bonds sold by authority of Act Numbered  Twenty-nine hundred  and ninety-nine a  sufficient sum to cover the reserve required by law for the circulating notes of the Bank, and said  sum shall  be deposited to the credit of the National Bank in a duly authorized depository or depositories  of the funds of the Government  of the Philippine  Islands in the  United States and shall  be carried on the books of the National Bank as a deposit  of said Government: Provided, That the Bank shall not dispose of said circulating notes reserve except upon recommendation of the Secretary of Finance approved by the Governor- General.

The National Bank shall redeem and cancel its circulating  notes in annual  sums as the Secretary of  Finance, with the concurrence of the Governor-General,  may from time to time determine, until the  amount thereof shall not exceed the amount of the unincumbered  paid-up capital  of the Bank.

SEC. 4. The net profits of the National Bank shall be apportioned semiannually as follows:

Fifty per centum to a surplus fund until the latter shall equal fifty per centum of the capital stock of the Bank, and thereafter twenty-five per centum of  said net profits until said surplus fund shall equal the capital stock.

The rest of the net profits shall be apportioned as follows, in the order mentioned:

(a)  To establish a special reserve for its circulating notes.  This reserve shall finally equal twenty-five per centum of said  circulating notes and  shall  be kept  on deposit in a duly authorized depository or depositories in the United States and the  Bank shall not  dispose thereof except upon recommendation of  the Secretary of Finance, approved by the Governor-General.  The Bank shall semiannually return to the Government  a  portion of the funds taken from the proceeds of the bonds  sold by  authority of Act  Numbered Twenty-nine hundred and ninety-nine, as provided in section three of this Act, equivalent in  amount to the net profits set aside for its special reserve by virtue of this paragraph.

(b)  To refund to the Government the fixed deposits appropriated to  cover losses, as provided  in section two  of this Act.

(c)  To reimburse the Government for the losses involved in the  reduction of the  capital  stock as provided  for  in section one  of this Act.

The net profits  set aside for  the purposes  mentioned in paragraphs  (b)  and  (c) shall be paid to the  Insular Treasurer.

When the  requirements  of  paragraphs (a), (6), and (c) and the provisions regarding the surplus above mentioned shall have been completely  complied  with,  the  remaining net profits may be  distributed in the form  of dividends to  the  stockholders  as  the  Board of  Directors may determine; but dividends shall never be declared  or paid out of  the surplus fund:  Provided, however, That whenever the surplus fund shall  have been reduced by- losses, fifty per centum of the  net profits shall be set aside for said fund until the same  shall once more equal fifty per centum of the capital stock, and thereafter twenty-five per centum of the net profits until the aforesaid fund shall again  equal  the capital stock.

SEC. 5. All  acts  or  parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of  this  Act are  hereby repealed.

SEC.  6. This  Act shall take effect as soon as  all the provisions  of the same shall  have been accepted  by the votes of the stockholders  representing  at least two-thirds of the subscribed capital stock of the  National Bank, and the Governor-General shall have  been  notified  of this fact by the Board of Directors.

Approved, November 24,  1924.