Section 4885.

If the commissioner finds all of the following with respect to an application for approval of a merger, the commissioner shall approve the application:

(a) That the merger will not result in a monopoly and will not be in furtherance of any combination or conspiracy to monopolize or to attempt to monopolize the banking, savings association, or industrial loan business in any part of this state.

(b) That the merger will not have the effect in any section of this state of substantially lessening competition, tending to create a monopoly, or otherwise being in restraint of trade, or that the anticompetitive effect is clearly outweighed in the public interest by the probable effect of the merger in meeting the convenience and needs of the community to be served.

(c) That the shareholders' equity of the surviving depository corporation will be adequate and that the financial condition of the surviving depository corporation will be satisfactory.

(d) That the directors and executive officers of the surviving depository corporation will be satisfactory.

(e) That the surviving depository corporation will afford reasonable promise of successful operation and that it is reasonable to believe that the surviving depository corporation will be operated in a safe and sound manner and in compliance with all applicable laws.

(f) That the merger will be fair, just, and equitable. For purposes of this subdivision, in the case of any term of the merger that has been determined by agreement between the disappearing depository corporation and the surviving depository corporation in an arm's length transaction, the commissioner shall find that the term is fair, just, and equitable to the disappearing depository corporation and the surviving depository corporation.

(g) In the case of a merger where the disappearing depository corporation is a California savings association, that the merger will not have a seriously adverse effect on the total availability of financing for housing in any market area of the disappearing savings association in this state or that any effect of that type is clearly outweighed in the public interest by the probable effect of the merger in meeting the convenience and needs of the community to be served. Nothing in this subdivision authorizes the commissioner to require the surviving depository corporation to make financing for housing available.

If the commissioner finds otherwise, the commissioner shall deny the application for approval of the merger.

(Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 1064, Sec. 513. Effective January 1, 1997. Operative July 1, 1997.)