No stockholder in a corporation organized under the laws of this State for banking purposes is eligible for election as a director who is not the owner of unencumbered and unpledged shares of stock in the corporation having an aggregate par value of at least five hundred dollars or having an aggregate book value as of December thirty-first of the most recent year of at least five hundred dollars. Where the banking corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary, the required qualifying shares must be shares in the parent corporation.
S.C. Code § 34-3-40