300 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 109

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of
Maryland, That Section 25 of Article 48A of the Code of
Public General Laws of Maryland, Edition of 1924, title
"Insurance", sub-title "General Provisions", be, and the
same is hereby repealed and re-enacted, with amendments,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 treasury 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, incor-
porated 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; pro-
vided, 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 unin-
cumbered 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 improved leasehold, real estate. When-
ever 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 any security
named in this section, or on the policies of the company in
force, provided, that each loan is less than the net reserve
of the policy on which the loan is made, according to the
standard of valuation prescribed in this article; and pro-
vided, that the current market value of such pledged secur-
ities, other than the bonds and stocks of this State, or of
the United States, shall be at all times during the con-
tinuance of such loans, at least ten per cent more than the
sum loaned on them. All such loans shall be subject to the