HERBERT R. O'CONOR, GOVERNOR. 283
CHAPTER 168.
(House Bill 123)

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact with amendments Section 25
of Article 48A of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1935
Supplement), title "Insurance", sub-title "General Pro-
visions", as said section was amended by Chapter 167 of
the Acts of 1937, authorizing the investment of reserves of
insurance companies in ground rents or first mortgages on
unencumbered fee simple, or improved leasehold, real estate,
in this or any other State of the United States, to an amount
not exceeding sixty-six and two-thirds per cent of the fair
market value thereof.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That Section 25 of Article 48A of the Annotated Code
of Maryland (1935 Supplement), title "Insurance", sub-title
"General Provisions", as said section was amended by Chap-
ter 167 of the Acts of 1937, be and the same is hereby repealed
and re-enacted, with amendments, 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 de-
bentures issued by the Federal Housing Administrator; or in
securities of national mortgage associations; provided, how-
ever, 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-six and two-thirds
per cent of the fair market value of such fee simple, or
improved 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