Chap. 72.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 5553 of the Code of Virginia,
as heretofore amended, relating to the rate of interest allowed to bankers,
brokers, corporations and agricultural credit corporations or associations.

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Approved March 7, 1938

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tions fifty-five hundred and fifty-three of the Code of Virginia, as here-
tofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 5553. Any licensed banker or broker, and any corpora-
tion authorized by law to make loans or to purchase or discount bonds,
bills, notes or other paper, may loan money or discount bonds, bills,
notes or other paper at a rate not exceeding one-half of one per centum
for thirty days and may charge a minimum loan or discount fee of one
dollar on loans or discounts, and may receive such interest in advance,
provided, however, that any bank, as defined by chapter five hundred
and seven of the acts of the General Assembly of nineteen hundred and
twenty-eight, as amended, may charge in advance the legal rate of in-
terest upon the entire amount of any loan, payable in weekly, monthly
or other periodical installments, and any note evidencing such an in-
stallment loan may provide that the entire unpaid balance thereof, at
the option of the holder, shall become due and payable upon default
in payment of any stipulated installment, without impairing the nego-
tiability of such note, if otherwise negotiable; and provided, further,
that agricultural credit corporations or associations organized under
the laws of this State may charge interest or discount on loans made
for agricultural purposes at a rate not exceeding one and one-half per
centum per annum in excess of the rate charged such agricultural credit
corporations or associations by Federal intermediate credit banks, at
the time such loans are made, or said agricultural credit corporation
or associations may in their discretion charge the rate of interest pre
scribed by section fifty-five hundred and fifty-one of the Code of Vir
ginia, nineteen hundred and thirty, and acts amendatory thereof, anc
in either case, such agricultural credit corporations or associations may
charge a minimum loan or discount fee of one dollar on loans or dis
counts for thirty days or more and may receive such interest or discoun
in either case in advance.