§ 43. Transfer of members between systems. a. Notwithstanding any
other provision of law providing for transfers, any member of any
retirement system maintained by the state or a municipality thereof,
operating on a sound financial basis and subject to the supervision of
the department of financial services of this state may transfer his
membership pursuant to this section to the New York state and local
employees' retirement system, the New York city board of education
employees' retirement system, the New York state teachers' retirement
system, the New York city teachers' retirement system or to the New York
city employees' retirement system. Any member of the New York state and
local employees' retirement system may transfer his membership to any
retirement system, other than the hospital retirement system, which is
operating on a sound basis and is subject to the supervision of the
department of financial services of this state. Any such transfer may be
effectuated only if the member has accepted a position in another branch
of the state or municipal service which would make it:

1. Impossible for him to continue in the retirement system of which he
has been a member, and

2. Possible for him to participate in another such system.

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this subdivision, any
employee who would be eligible to avail himself or herself of the
provisions of this section but for being on leave of absence status from
a prior employment while in his or her present employment, shall be
permitted to transfer his or her retirement system membership pursuant
to the provisions of this section.

Any member of the New York state and local employees' retirement
system, however, who was an employee of any city agency at the time
service with such agency was legislated to be city service may transfer
his membership to the retirement system of such city.

b. In order to effect such a transfer, a member must give notice to
the administrative head of the retirement system of which he or she is a
member, prior to his or her withdrawal therefrom, of his or her
intention to enter such other retirement system. A person so
transferring from one retirement system to another shall be deemed to
have been a member of the system to which he or she has transferred
during the entire period of membership service credited to him or her in
the system from which he or she has transferred. Such transferee,
however, shall not receive more than three per cent interest on his or
her contributions and accumulated contributions unless he or she has
continuously been a member in either the system from which or to which
he or she is transferring since a date prior to July first, nineteen
hundred forty-three. This shall not be construed to prevent a change in
the interest rate to such member if the interest rate payable to other
members of the system to which he or she has transferred is changed. Any
member who heretofore transferred from one retirement system to another
shall, commencing with the effective date of chapter nine hundred three
of the laws of nineteen hundred fifty-seven, be entitled to the same
rights, privileges and benefits, and shall be subject to the same
obligations, as a transferee who thereafter transfers. He or she shall
receive no credit for prior service, except as hereinafter provided. He
or she shall be permitted to deposit in the second retirement system the
total amount of his contributions withdrawn from the first retirement
system.

c. Upon the request for a transfer of credit, the reserve on such
member's benefits, computed as though he had not discontinued
membership, shall be determined by the actuary of the first system in
the following manner:

1. The total present value of all benefits allowable under the
retirement system as the result of contributions made or to be made by
his employer shall be computed.

2. From such total present value there shall be deducted the present
value of the future contributions which would be payable by his employer
on such member's account had he become a member of the retirement
system, subsequent to its establishment, at the age at which he
originally entered the service of his employer. The result so obtained
shall be considered as the reserve on his account in the first
retirement system.

d. Such reserve shall be transferred from the appropriate fund or
funds of the first system to the appropriate fund or funds of the second
system. Such member, thereupon, shall be given such status and credited
with such service in the second retirement system as he was allowed in
the first retirement system. Such contributor, notwithstanding any other
provision of law, shall on retirement be entitled to a pension based on
salary earned during member service in both retirement systems together,
pursuant to the statutory requirements of the second retirement system.

e. The provisions of former subdivision e of this section, as
originally enacted by chapter four hundred eighty-three of the laws of
nineteen hundred forty-five and as codified in such former subdivision e
by chapter eight hundred forty-one of the laws of nineteen hundred
forty-seven, shall apply only to memberships transferred prior to July
first, nineteen hundred forty-nine. Section one hundred seventeen of
this article shall apply to the provisions of this subdivision insofar
as such provisions relate to such memberships.

f. 1. A "New York city member", as defined in subdivision twenty of
section two hundred forty-three of the military law, who shall transfer
to another retirement system pursuant to this section shall be given
credit, upon such transfer, for the period of military duty to which
such member would have been entitled pursuant to such subdivision twenty
if he had remained, until the time of death or retirement, in the
retirement system from which he shall so transfer. The amount of
reserves to be transferred under this section for such credit shall be
computed in accordance with this section, shall include pension reserves
for such military duty, and shall be credited by the retirement system
to which the member shall transfer in accordance with the provisions of
such system governing credit for service in world war II, and the city
of New York, or the authority, by which such member is employed
immediately prior to the transfer, shall pay to the retirement system
the amount of the reserve to be transferred on account of such military
service.

2. Any retirement system from which a member shall transfer pursuant
to this subdivision shall have the right to require reasonable proof of
military service, pay status, and any other information relevant to
eligibility for such transfer of credit for military duty.

3. The provisions of this subdivision f shall apply only to a "New
York city member" who has rendered service as an officer or employee of
the city of New York (or any agency thereof) or public corporation, the
officers or employees of which are eligible for membership in a pension
or retirement system maintained by such city, including performance of
such military duty, for at least fifty per centum of the time between
his commencement of such service and the date upon which he has attained
or shall attain age fifty-five.

h. Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, a former member of
the New York state teachers' retirement system who holds membership in
the New York city teachers' retirement system on the effective date of
this act and who would have been entitled to transfer service credit to
such latter retirement system pursuant to this section had his
membership in the former retirement system not terminated, due to no
negligence on the part of the member, may have his transfer rights under
this section restored by depositing, within one year of the effective
date of this act, in the former retirement system an amount equal to the
contributions withdrawn from such system with regular interest thereon.

j. This subdivision shall apply only to individuals who, subsequent to
vesting in a retirement system, transfer to a second retirement system
whose governing laws require a greater number of years of credit for
vesting than those of the first system, and who, upon such transfer, do
not have the number of years of service credit that is ordinarily
required to vest in such second retirement system.

1. Upon transfer, the number of years of service credit required for
the transferred individual to attain vested rights in the second
retirement system shall be the same as the number of years of service
credit required, under applicable law, for vesting in the first
retirement system.

2. In the event that an individual covered by this subdivision makes
application to retire from such second system prior to attaining the
amount of service credit that would otherwise be necessary to vest in
such second retirement system, and such individual is otherwise eligible
to retire from such second system, the application shall be granted, and
benefits shall be calculated on the basis of the actual amount of
service credit the individual has accrued at the time of retirement.
Transferred service credit shall not be creditable under any plan in the
second retirement system that it would not otherwise be creditable
under.

k. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, any member of
the New York state and local employees' retirement system or the New
York city teachers' retirement system who retired from service from
either the New York city employees' retirement system or the New York
city board of education retirement system as a member of the career
pension plan maintained by such system and who, but for the fact that he
or she retired, would be eligible for transfer and who has not, in fact,
received a pension payment from such system shall be permitted to
transfer his or her retirement system membership pursuant to the
provisions of this section. In such event, the application for
retirement shall be deemed to have been rescinded and the retirement
system from which the service shall be transferred shall transfer the
appropriate reserves as provided by this section, provided, however,
that with respect to transfers pursuant to this subdivision which occur
on or after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two
thousand twenty-three that amended this subdivision, except for the
purposes of providing the benefits, if any, of subdivision four of
section five hundred twenty-two of the education law, no determination
of a reserve pursuant to subdivision c of this section or transfer
thereof pursuant to the first sentence of subdivision d of this section
shall be required in the case of any transfer pursuant to this
subdivision with less than ten years of credited service with the
transferring retirement system at the time the transfer is initiated.
With respect to transfers pursuant to this section which occur on or
after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand
twenty-three that amended this subdivision, the transfer of a pension
reserve shall be required when the member is transferring ten or more
years of credited service from a public retirement system of the state
to any other public retirement system of the state, excluding any
transfers within and between the New York city employees' retirement
system, the New York city teachers' retirement system and the New York
city board of education retirement system. Notwithstanding the provision
of this subdivision or any other provision of law, an individual who
transfers pursuant to this subdivision shall not be required to render
any minimum period of service following transfer in order to be eligible
to receive the full benefit provided hereunder. Notwithstanding the
foregoing, a retiree covered by either the career pension plan or the
fifty-five-year-increased-service-fraction plan who has received a
pension payment or payments from such system shall be eligible for the
provisions of this subdivision upon payment, to the retirement system
from which the pension payment or payments were made, of an amount equal
to such pension payment or payments. After such payments and the pension
reserve, in the case of a member who transfers in ten or more years of
credited service, except when transferring within and between the New
York city employees' retirement system, the New York city teachers'
retirement system and the New York city board of education retirement
system, are received, such person shall be permitted to transfer his or
her retirement system membership pursuant to the provisions of this
section.

l. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, with
respect to transfers pursuant to this section which occur on or after
the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand
twenty-three that amended this subdivision, except for the purposes of
providing the benefits, if any, of subdivision four of section five
hundred twenty-two of the education law, no determination of a reserve
pursuant to subdivision c of this section or transfer thereof pursuant
to the first sentence of subdivision d of this section shall be required
in the case of any transfer pursuant to this section with less than ten
years of credited service with the transferring retirement system at the
time the transfer is initiated. With respect to transfers pursuant to
this section which occur on or after the effective date of the chapter
of the laws of two thousand twenty-three that amended this subdivision,
the transfer of a pension reserve shall be required when the member is
transferring ten or more years of credited service from a public
retirement system of the state to any other public retirement system of
the state, excluding any transfers within and between the New York city
employees' retirement system, the New York city teachers' retirement
system and the New York city board of education retirement system. For
the purpose of giving the transferring member such status and crediting
such service in the second retirement system as such member was allowed
in the first retirement system in those cases to which this subdivision
shall apply, the transfer shall be deemed complete upon receipt by the
second retirement system of:

1. a statement from the first retirement system of the transferring
member's date of membership in the first retirement system, tier status,
service credited to such membership being transferred, and such other
information as the second retirement system may require to effectuate
the transfer;

2. such member's accumulated contributions from the first retirement
system, if same had not been previously withdrawn, or notice from the
first retirement system that such member had no accumulated
contributions, or notice from the first retirement system that such
member's accumulated contributions had been withdrawn and the amount
thereof and, as applicable, receipt from such member of such member's
accumulated contributions and interest; and

3. the pension reserve in the case of a member who transfers in ten or
more years of credited service, except when transferring within and
between the New York city employees' retirement system, the New York
city teachers' retirement system and the New York city board of
education retirement system.