Section 278. Exchange of mortgage investment

Trustees,  executors,
  administrators, guardians, committees, conservators, receivers, the town
  treasurer of any town and other persons and corporations  holding  trust
  funds,  corporations  and  private bankers organized under or subject to
  the provisions of the  banking  law,  the  superintendent  of  banks  as
  conservator,  liquidator  or  rehabilitator  of  any such corporation or
  private banker organized under and subject  to  the  provisions  of  the
  banking  law, persons, partnerships, and corporations organized under or
  subject to the provisions of the insurance law,  the  superintendent  of
  insurance  as  conservator,  liquidator  or  rehabilitator  of  any such
  person, partnership or corporation organized under  or  subject  to  the
  provisions  of  the insurance law, and other domestic corporations, that
  shall have made or shall hold an investment, whether with or  without  a
  specified ratio of real property security, in a bond secured by mortgage
  on  real  property  or share or part thereof, whether guaranteed or not,
  may, at any time without an order  of  the  court  or  other  authority,
  exchange,  prior  or  subsequent  to maturity, such bond and mortgage or
  share or part thereof and any rights in respect thereto,  for  bonds  of
  Home  Owners' Loan Corporation, a corporation created under home owners'
  loan act of nineteen hundred and thirty-three, and may hold  such  bonds
  of  Home  Owners'  Loan Corporation as authorized and lawful investments
  for any and all purposes, notwithstanding the provisions of any  general
  or  special  law  of this state inconsistent with the provisions of this
  section.