Unless otherwise prohibited by law, any state bank may invest in the capital stock of corporations organized to conduct the following businesses:

(1) A safe deposit business: PROVIDED, That the amount of investment does not exceed fifteen percent of its capital stock and surplus, without the approval of the director;

(2) A corporation holding the premises of the bank or its branches: PROVIDED, That without the approval of the director, the investment of such stock shall not exceed, together with all loans made to the corporation by the bank, a sum equal to the amount permitted to be invested in the premises by RCW 30A.04.210;

(3) Stock in a small business investment company licensed and regulated by the United States as authorized by the small business act, Public Law 85-536, 72 Statutes at Large 384, in an amount not to exceed five percent of its capital and surplus without the approval of the director;

(4) Capital stock of a banking service corporation or corporations. The total amount that a bank may invest in the shares of such corporation may not exceed ten percent of its capital and surplus without the approval of the director. A bank service corporation may not engage in any activity other than those permitted by the bank service corporation act, 12 U.S.C. § 1861, et seq., as subsequently amended and in effect on December 31, 1993. The performance of any service, and any records maintained by any such corporation for a bank, shall be subject to regulation and examination by the director and appropriate federal agencies to the same extent as if the services or records were being performed or maintained by the bank on its own premises;

(5) Capital stock of a federal reserve bank to the extent required by such federal reserve bank;

(6) A corporation engaging in business activities that have been determined by the board of governors of the federal reserve system or by the United States congress to be closely related to the business of banking, as of December 31, 1993;

(7) A governmentally sponsored corporation engaged in secondary marketing of loans and the stock of which must be owned in order to participate in its marketing activities;

(8) A corporation in which all of the voting stock is owned by the bank and that engages exclusively in nondeposit-taking activities that are authorized to be engaged in by the bank or trust company;

(9) A bank may purchase for its own account shares of stock of a bank or a holding company that owns or controls a bank if the stock of the bank or company is owned exclusively, except to the extent directly qualifying shares are required by law, by depository institutions and the bank or company and all subsidiaries thereof are engaged exclusively in providing services for other depository institutions and their officers, directors, and employees. In no event may the total amount of such stock held by a bank in any bank or bank holding company exceed at any time ten percent of its capital stock and paid-in and unimpaired surplus, and in no event may the purchase of such stock result in a bank acquiring more than twenty-five percent of any class of voting securities of such bank or company. Such a bank or bank holding company shall be called a “banker’s bank.”

Findings—Construction—1994 c 256: See RCW 43.320.007.