Banks may accept and execute all such trusts and perform such duties of every description as may be committed to them by any person or corporation or that may be committed or transferred to them by order of any court of record. They may receive money in trust, take and accept by grant, assignment, transfer, devise or bequest, and hold any real or personal estate or trusts created according to the laws of this or any other state or of the United States, and execute those legal trusts in regard to the same, on such terms as may be directed or agreed upon. They may act as agent for the investment of money or the management of property for other persons, and as agent for persons and corporations for the purpose of issuing, registering, transferring or countersigning the certificates of stock, bonds or other evidences of debt of any corporation, association, municipality, state, county or public authority on such terms as may be agreed upon. They also may act as guardian for any minor or person with mental illness under the appointment of any court of record having jurisdiction of the person or estate of the minor or person with mental illness and may act as administrator or executor of the estate of any deceased person. They may act as agent or attorney in fact and as commissioner for the sale of property, both real and personal, and may act as assignee or receiver, or as trustee in mortgages or bond issues, or in any other fiduciary capacity authorized by law. They may accept trust funds or other property upon specially agreed terms and pay or deliver the same to the owners, beneficiaries or others, as the case may be, when and as the same should be paid or delivered according to the terms of the trust agreement under which it is held. Whenever under the laws of this or any other state or under the rule or order of any court, the execution of a bond for the protection of a private or court trust is required, a trust company shall be authorized to execute the bond for the protection of any trust or trust estate being administered by it.
Banking corporations created, organized and doing business under the laws of the State of Mississippi may exercise, without amendment of their charters, and under their charter authority to engage in the general business of banking, all or any of the foregoing powers. However, before any bank whose charter merely authorizes the exercise of general banking functions may exercise those powers, the previous written consent of the Commissioner of Banking and Consumer Finance shall be obtained.
Banks exercising any or all of those powers shall segregate all assets held in any fiduciary capacity from the general assets of the bank and shall keep a separate set of books and records showing in proper detail all transactions engaged in under the authority of this section or under the authority granted to them in their charter or otherwise. Those books and records shall be inspected and examined by the state bank examiners at each and every examination of the bank.
No bank shall receive in its trust department deposits of current funds subject to check or the deposit of checks, drafts, bills of exchange or other items for collection or exchange purposes. Funds deposited or held in trust by the bank awaiting investment or distribution shall be carried in a separate account and shall not be used by the bank in the conduct of its business, unless it first sets aside in the trust department United States bonds or bonds of the State of Mississippi or any subdivision of the state, the market value of which shall at all times be not less than ten percent (10%) in excess of the total funds so held, exclusive of the portion of funds insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
In the event of the failure or liquidation of the bank, the owners of the funds held in trust for investment or distribution shall have a prior lien on the bonds or other securities so set apart in addition to their claim against the assets of the bank.
In any case in which the laws of this state require that one acting as trustee, executor, administrator or in any fiduciary capacity must take an oath or make an affidavit, the president, vice president, cashier or trust officer of a bank may take the necessary oath or execute the necessary affidavit.
In making investments of trust funds, it shall be unlawful for any bank to purchase securities from itself or to purchase securities in which it may be interested, directly or indirectly. However, any bank, including a national bank, authorized to do business in this state in a fiduciary capacity may, unless prohibited or otherwise limited by the instrument governing the fiduciary relationship, in the exercise of its investment discretion or at the direction of another person authorized to direct the investment of funds held by the bank as fiduciary, invest and reinvest in the securities of, or other interests in, any open-end or closed-end management type investment company or investment trust registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, 15 USCS Section 80a-1, et seq., as amended, notwithstanding that the banking institution or affiliate of the banking institution provides services to the investment company or investment trust, such as that of an investment advisor, custodian, transfer agent, registrar, sponsor, distributor, manager or otherwise, and receives reasonable remuneration for those services, so long as the total compensation paid by the trust or custodial estate as trustee’s fees and mutual fund fees is reasonable, taking into account the nature and extent of the trustee’s duties, the nature and extent of the services provided to the investment company or investment trust, and the total compensation, costs and fees that would otherwise be paid, directly or indirectly, by the trust or custodial estate if the investment were made in an investment company or investment trust for which the bank or its affiliates provided no services. With respect to any funds so invested, the banking institution shall make available by statement, prospectus or otherwise to all current income beneficiaries of an account the basis, expressed as a percentage of asset value or otherwise, upon which the remuneration is calculated. No bank shall lend to any officer, director or employee of the bank any funds held in trust by it, and any officer, director or employee making a loan, or to whom such a loan is made, shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, may be fined not more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) or imprisoned in the State Penitentiary for not more than five (5) years, or by both that fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.