The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Subchapter
005
:
ACQUISITION OF ASSETS; ASSUMPTION OF LIABILITIES
(Cite as: 8 V.S.A. § 17502)
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§ 17502. Assumption of liabilities
(a) Assumption of liabilities. Subject to the approval of the Commissioner, any Vermont financial institution may,
by contract, assume all or any part of the deposit and other liability of any other
financial institution or financial institutions and may accept in payment or part
payment for the obligations so assumed all or any part of the assets of the other
financial institution or may so accept in payment or part payment, the notes or other
undertakings of the other financial institution secured by a pledge to the assuming
financial institution, or secured by any other lien or trust for its benefit, with
respect to all or any part of the assets of the other financial institution or financial
institutions, at least equal in value to the amount of the deposit liability assumed.
Such contracts of assumption, notes, undertakings, liens, or trust agreements may
be in any form approved by the Commissioner that provides for equality of treatment
of all depositors and for the full payment of all assumed deposits on demand. All
depositors whose deposits are so assumed shall be notified by mail of the assumption
and any depositor objecting to the assumption within 60 days after that notice shall
be paid the full amount of the assumed deposit, with interest to the date of the objection,
computed at the proportional part of the interest rate to be paid for that period
by the Vermont financial institution on other deposits or, if no rate has been determined,
at the rate for the interest period next preceding the notice, not to exceed the rate
prescribed by the directors for the then current period, if a rate has been so prescribed
for the period.
(b) Contracts for assumption of deposit liability. Contracts for the assumption of deposit liability may be entered into independently
of merger of financial institutions or as a part of any such merger, and the Commissioner
may authorize under the provisions of chapter 205 of this title the assuming financial
institution to establish a branch at any location at which the other financial institution
might have conducted its business. However, such a contract shall not be valid unless
the governing bodies of the signatory financial institutions have been authorized
to act by a vote of the investors or mutual voters of the financial institutions.
That authorization requires the affirmative vote, in the case of a mutual or cooperative
financial institution, of a majority of the mutual voters, and in the case of an investor-
owned financial institution, requires the vote provided in its organizational documents
for amending the charter and in any event, at least the affirmative vote of a majority
of the equity interests, as well as the affirmative vote of a majority of each class
of equity interest present and voting at the meeting. All classes of equity interests
may vote on the question whether or not the rights of any class to vote generally
have been suspended under the terms of the charter by reason of nonpayment of dividends. (Added 1999, No. 153 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Jan. 1, 2001; amended 2021, No. 105 (Adj. Sess.), § 302, eff. July 1, 2022.)