2016 Mississippi Code
Title 81 - Banks and Financial Institutions
Chapter 3 - Incorporation and Organization of Banks
§ 81-3-11. Capital stock and surplus required

(1) No banking corporation shall be permitted to operate in the State of Mississippi under the provisions of this chapter unless it has the minimum capital of Two Million Dollars ($ 2,000,000.00) or any additional amounts required by the supervising federal regulatory agencies. However, this requirement of capital shall not apply to banks in operation in this state before July 1, 1994. At any time that the commissioner finds that an operating bank has an insufficient amount of capital, it shall be his duty to call upon such bank to restore the capital to an amount to be determined to be adequate to safeguard the depositors of the bank.

(2) For the purpose of strengthening its capital structure, every banking corporation organized under the laws of this state shall, except as otherwise provided herein, at the close of business each year set aside to the credit of a separate surplus account, to be denominated on its books "Earned Surplus," an amount not less than twenty-five percent (25%) of its net earnings, after providing for the payment of dividends on its preferred stock, if any, until the "Earned Surplus" account on its books shall amount to a sum equal to three (3) times the total of its common and preferred stock. However, any bank having at the close of the business year a ratio of total deposits to total capital, surplus and earned surplus not in excess of a ratio of Ten Dollars ($ 10.00) of deposits to One Dollar ($ 1.00) of total capital (such deposits to be the average of the deposits shown by all of the calls for the business year and such capital to include all stock, surplus and earned surplus) shall be required to set aside twenty-five percent (25%) of its earnings only to the extent necessary to cause its "Earned Surplus" account to equal its total capital. When such ratio of total deposits to total capital of any bank at the close of business any year does not exceed that specified above and the "Earned Surplus" account is equal to or more than the amount of its total capital, then such bank shall not be required to set aside twenty-five percent (25%) of its earnings for that year to the credit of its "Earned Surplus" account, but may so set aside any part of its earnings until its "Earned Surplus" account is equal to three (3) times its total capital. The net earnings of every bank set aside to its "Earned Surplus" account shall be exempt from all state, county, municipal, levee district and other ad valorem taxes. Every national banking association doing business in this state which shall comply with the provisions hereof, shall be entitled to the same exemption from taxation on its earned surplus and to the same rights and privileges hereby given to state banks.

"Earned Surplus" as referred to in this chapter shall be construed to mean only the earned surplus account as shown on the books of the bank on the effective date of this chapter and such earnings as may thereafter be credited to such account. Surplus actually carried on the books of the bank on April 2, 1934, shall remain taxable, and if charged off for any purpose other than to transfer it to taxable common stock, it shall be restored either out of the earned surplus account or from earnings. But if the state comptroller, or in the case of a national bank, the comptroller of the currency, shall determine that on April 2, 1934, there were actually existing losses among the assets of a bank and that the surplus shown on the books of such bank was not actually worth the amount at which it was then being carried, he may issue his certificate to the bank showing the actual value of its surplus on April 2, 1934, and the bank may reduce the amount thereof to the actual value as shown by such certificate and shall not be required to restore it.

The paid-in surplus of any bank derived from sale of shares of its capital stock after January 1, 1961, shall be considered as earned surplus in an amount not to exceed the common stock and shall be treated as earned surplus for the purpose of ad valorem taxation.

In rendering the annual statement required by section 27-35-35, Code of 1972, banks may exclude from the value of their shares the total "earned surplus" as shown on their books, and such earned surplus shall not be taken into consideration by the assessing officers or equalizing authority, in arriving at the amount of the personal assessment.