HARRY W. NICE, GOVERNOR. 289
CHAPTER 167.

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact with amendments Section 25
of Article 48A of the Code of Public General Laws of Mary-
land (1935 Supplement), title "Insurance", sub-title "Gen-
eral Provisions", authorizing the investment of reserves of
insurance companies in debentures issued by the Federal
Housing Administrator, and for clarification purposes; and
declaring the same to be an emergency law necessary for
the immediate preservation of the public health and safety.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That Section 25 of Article 48A of the Code of Public
General Laws of Maryland (1935 Supplement), title "Insur-
ance", sub-title "General Provisions", be and the same is here-
by repealed and re-enacted with amendments so as to read as
follows:

25. INVESTMENT OF RESERVES. Every insurance company,
domestic or foreign, authorized to do business in this state,
must have and continually keep an amount equal to its entire
reinsurance reserve and all other debts and claims against it,
exclusive of capital stock, invested in the bonds, coin or treas-
ury notes of the United States, or interest, or dividend-paying
bonds or stocks of this or any other state of the United States
or of any county, incorporated city or other corporation of this
or any other state having legal authority to issue the same,
and not in default, or in real estate for the office or business
purposes only of said company or bonds of the Home Owners
Loan Corporation, a corporation created under an Act of Con-
gress of the United States, approved June 13, 1933, or in
debentures issued by the Federal Housing Administrator; or
in securities of national mortgage associations; provided,
however, that they shall have the right to purchase and
hold real estate under a foreclosure of their own mortgages
for a period of not more than five years, and for five years
longer if, in the judgment of the insurance commissioner,
it is advisable so to do; or it may be invested in ground
rents, or loaned upon first mortgages on unincumbered fee
simple, or improved leasehold, real estate, in this or any other
state of the United States, to an amount not exceeding sixty
per cent of the fair market value of such fee simple, or im-
proved leasehold, real estate. Whenever such loans are made
upon fee simple, or improved leasehold, real estate which is
improved by a building or buildings, the said improvements
shall be insured against loss by fire, and the fire insurance
policies shall be duly assigned to the mortgagee as additional
security for the said loan; or it may be loaned on pledges of
10