Trustee Savings Banks Act , 1989

(6) The Minister and the Central Bank may, at the request of any of the banks and the amalgamated bank, include in the order under section 48 such provisions as they think appropriate for transferring the whole or any part of the property and assets of any pension or superannuation scheme of the first-mentioned bank to a corresponding pension or superannuation scheme of the amalgamated bank and vesting it for the purposes of the corresponding scheme in the trustees or other persons charged with the administration of such corresponding scheme and for winding up, dissolving, terminating or modifying any such scheme of the first-mentioned bank and the corresponding scheme shall have effect in accordance with any such provisions, any such scheme of the first-mentioned bank being wound up, dissolved, terminated or modified, as the case may be.

(7) In this section—

“benefit” means any pension, gratuity or other benefit payable in respect of past service with the bank concerned or other specified past service on resignation, retirement or death;

“pension or superannuation scheme of any of the banks” means a scheme, arrangement or fund established in connection with the business of that bank for the provision of benefit for the officers or other members of the staff of that bank or their dependants and any cognate expression shall be construed accordingly;

“pension or superannuation scheme of the amalgamated bank” means a scheme, arrangement or fund established in connection with the business of the amalgamated bank for the provision of benefit for the officers or other members of the staff of the amalgamated bank or their dependants and any cognate expression shall be construed accordingly.

54 Application of certain instruments.

54.—Where—

(a) the business of any of the banks agreed to be amalgamated includes the business of acting as trustee, executor or guardian or in any other fiduciary capacity, and

(b) that bank was or is appointed to act as a personal representative, trustee or guardian or in any other fiduciary capacity by an instrument consisting of—

(i) an order of a court,

(ii) a trust deed, settlement, covenant or agreement, or

(iii) a will, codicil or other testamentary instrument or a grant of administration,

or by any testamentary act other than those aforesaid, whether the instrument, grant or act was made, executed or done before or after the amalgamation day,

the instrument, grant or act shall as from the amalgamation day be read and construed and have effect as if for any reference therein to that bank there were substituted a reference to the amalgamated bank.

55 Application of Bankers' Books Evidence Acts, 1879 and 1959.

55.—(1) The Bankers' Books Evidence Acts, 1879 and 1959, shall continue to apply with respect to any books of the banks transferred to the amalgamated bank in connection with the business of the banks and to entries made in those books before the amalgamation day.

(2) In this section “books” includes ledgers, day books, cash books, account books and all other books and records used in the ordinary business of the bank before the amalgamation day.

56 Continuance of pending legal proceedings.

56.—Where, immediately before the amalgamation day any legal proceedings are pending to which any of the banks is a party and the proceedings have reference to the business of the bank, the name of the amalgamated bank shall on the amalgamation day be substituted for that of that bank and the proceedings shall not abate by reason of such substitution.

PART VII Miscellaneous

57 Authorisation by Minister of reorganisation of trustee savings banks into companies.

57.—(1) In this section—

“company” and “reorganisation” shall be construed in accordance with subsection (3);

“order” means an order under subsection (2).

(2) The Minister may make an order for the purposes of this section and may make an order amending or revoking any order made under this section.

(3) (a) An order may authorise the reorganisation of one or more trustee savings banks into a company referred to in subparagraph (i) or (ii) of paragraph (c) and an order so doing may provide for the transfer to the company of all or part of the property and rights of the bank or banks concerned and of all of the liabilities or obligations thereof, including deposits in the bank or banks and the liabilities referable thereto, to the company.

(b) An order may authorise the reorganisation of a company referred to in the said subparagraph (i) into a company referred to in the said subparagraph (ii).

(c) In this subsection “company” means—

(i) a company the composition of the board of directors of which is controlled by the Minister or as respects which more than half in nominal value of its equity share capital and more than half in nominal value of its shares carrying voting rights are held by the Minister, or

(ii) a company the composition of the board of directors of which is controlled by a person or persons other than the Minister and as respects which more than half in nominal value of its equity share capital or more than half in nominal value of shares carrying voting rights are held by a person or persons other than the Minister,

and, for the purposes of subparagraph (i), the composition of the board of directors of a company shall be deemed to be controlled by a person or persons including the Minister in a case where, if the person or persons were a company, the composition of that board would be deemed, by virtue of section 155 (2) of the Act of 1963, to be controlled by the latter company.

(4) An order authorising the reorganisation of a trustee savings bank into a company referred to in subsection (3) (c) (i) may make provision for such matters as the Minister considers necessary or expedient for the purposes of the reorganisation and, in particular but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, shall provide—

(a) that the memorandum and articles of association of the company shall be in such form consistent with any orders for the time being in force as shall be approved of by the Minister and the Central Bank,

(b) that notwithstanding anything contained in the Companies Acts no alteration in the memorandum of association or articles of association of the company shall be valid or effectual unless made with the previous approval of the Minister and the Central Bank,

(c) for the allotment and issue to and the holding by the Minister of shares in the company and for the holding in trust for the Minister of any shares in the company held by a person other than the Minister,

(d) for authorising the Minister to take up by subscription from time to time shares in the company,

(e) for the exercise by the Minister, in respect of shares in the company held by him, of all or any of the rights and powers from time to time exercisable by the holder of such shares including, where such rights and powers are exercisable by attorney, the exercise by the Minister, if he so thinks proper, of such rights and powers by his attorney,

(f) for authorising the Minister to appoint persons to be directors of the company and to determine the remuneration of such directors and the other terms and conditions of their tenure of office as such directors,

(g) for the prohibition of the transfer or alienation by the Minister of shares in the company held by him otherwise than for the purpose of providing a person appointed or intended to be appointed to be a director of the company with the necessary qualification and the prohibition, in any event, of the transfer for the purpose aforesaid of any number of shares in the company that would reduce the numbers of shares in the company held by him to less than 51 per cent. of the shares of the company,

(h) for authorising the Minister to require a director of the company to transfer to a specified person, for the purpose mentioned in paragraph (g), a share or shares in the company held by the director, and

(i) for the charging on the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof of any money payable by the Minister for the allotment and issue of shares in the company to him and to persons who hold them in trust for him.

(5) An order providing for the transfer of any assets of a trustee savings bank to a company may provide for the transfer of specified assets of the bank to the Minister.

(6) (a) An order authorising the reorganisation of a company referred to in subparagraph (i) of subsection (3) (c) into a company referred to in subparagraph (ii) of that subsection shall make provision for the disposal by the Minister of the proceeds of any sale, placing or other disposal of shares in the first-mentioned company held by him or of any sale or disposal of assets of that company.

(b) An order authorising the reorganisation of a trustee savings bank into a company referred to in subsection (3) (c) (ii) may provide for the payment to the Minister of the proceeds or part of the proceeds of any sale, placing or other disposal of shares in the company or of any sale or other disposal of assets of the company and for the payment by the Minister into the Central Fund of any such proceeds paid to him.

(7) (a) If and for so long as a company is a company to which subsection (3) (c) (i) applies, this Act shall apply in relation to the company subject to any modifications or adaptations (including the adaptation of references to trustees and rules of trustee savings banks) that the Minister considers necessary or expedient and specifies in an order and any other necessary modifications and adaptations.

(b) If a company is a company to which subsection (3) (c) (ii) applies this Act (other than this section) shall not apply in relation to the company and the rights, liabilities and obligations referable to a deposit in the bank (being as respects a deposit, liabilities to return the deposit to the depositor and to pay interest on it (if it was payable) at the rate prevailing immediately before the reorganisation) shall become instead rights, liabilities and obligations incident to the relationship of customer and banker and shall be variable, and section 7 of the Central Bank Act, 1971, shall apply in relation to the company, accordingly.

(8) An order may, for the purposes of a reorganisation, make such (if any) provision as the Minister, after consultation with the Central Bank, considers appropriate for the transfer of staff of the trustee savings bank concerned from employment with the bank to employment with the company concerned and from employment with a company referred to in subparagraph (i) of subsection (3) (c) to employment with a company referred to in subparagraph (ii) of that subsection and in relation to the terms and conditions of such employment with the company concerned.

(9) An order may, for the purposes of a reorganisation, provide for the dissolution and winding up of a trustee savings bank and may, for the purpose of the winding up, apply to it, with any necessary modifications, the provisions of the Companies Acts.

(10) Without prejudice to the foregoing, an order may make provision for such other matters including adaptation and modification, as respects the company concerned, of statutes and instruments made under statutes as the Minister considers necessary or expedient for the purposes of the reorganisation concerned and for enabling any such reorganisation to have full effect.

(11) A draft of any order proposed to be made shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the order shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.

58 Restriction on certain statements.

58.—(1) The title of a trustee savings bank or anything published by a trustee savings bank shall not state or imply that the State, the Government, a Minister of the Government or the Central Bank is liable to pay to a depositor with the bank any amount in respect of his deposit.

(2) Where, in relation to a trustee savings bank, there is a contravention of subsection (1), the bank shall be guilty of an offence.

59 Amendment of Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1879.

59.—Section 9 (inserted by the Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1959) of the Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1879, is hereby amended—

(a) in subsection (1), by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (d):

“(d) a trustee savings bank within the meaning of the Trustee Savings Banks Act, 1989;”,

and

(b) by the insertion after subsection (4) (inserted by the Central Bank Act, 1971) of the following subsection:

“(5) A certificate that—

(a) purports to be signed by an officer of the Central Bank, and

(b) certifies that a licence was granted under section 10 of the Trustee Savings Banks Act, 1989, in respect of a specified trustee savings bank (within the meaning of that Act),

shall be prima facie evidence of the licence for the purposes of this Act, and it shall not be necessary to prove the signature of the officer or that he was in fact an officer of the Central Bank.”.

60 Payment by trustee savings bank of small deposits on death.

60.—(1) Where a depositor with a trustee savings bank dies, the sum on deposit or part of it, not exceeding such amount as may from time to time be fixed by the Central Bank after consultation with the Minister, may be paid by the bank, without representation within the meaning of the Succession Act, 1965, having been granted in respect of the estate of the depositor, to the person who appears to the bank to be entitled to receive it, whether as personal representative of the depositor or otherwise, upon the bank's being satisfied by evidence contained in a statutory declaration of the occurrence of the death and of the entitlement of the person, by or on whose behalf the sum is claimed, to the receipt thereof.

(2) Where a payment is made under this section to a person who is not the executor of the depositor concerned, the bank concerned shall as soon as may be, give to the President of the High Court particulars in writing of the payment.

(3) Where a bank duly makes a payment under this section, the payment shall be valid and effectual with respect to any demands against the funds of the bank from any person making a claim as regards the estate of the depositor concerned but the person claiming shall have his remedy for the amount of the payment against the person to whom the payment was made.

61 Recognition of trustee savings bank accounts.

61.—A reference in any enactment to the deposit of money or the keeping of an account in a bank shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed as including a reference to the deposit of money with or the keeping of an account in a trustee savings bank and the provisions of any such enactment in relation to the rights and obligations of a bank in respect of accounts in a bank shall apply to a trustee savings bank as they apply to a bank.

62 Penalties.

62.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under section 4, 11, 13, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29 or 30 shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1,000 or, in the case of an individual, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding £50,000 or, in the case of an individual, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both.

(2) A person guilty of an offence under section 12, 15, 16, 21, 25, 27, 31, 32, 40, 42 or 58 of this Act shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1,000, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding £50,000.

(3) A person guilty of an offence under section 14 or 36 shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding £25,000.

(4) If the contravention, failure or refusal in respect of which a person is convicted of an offence referred to in subsection (1) or (2) is continued after conviction, the person shall be guilty of a further offence on every day on which the contravention, failure or refusal continues and for each such offence the person shall be liable—

(i) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £100, or

(ii) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding £5,000,

instead of the penalty specified for the original contravention, failure or refusal.

63 Offences by trustee savings banks and bodies corporate.

63.—(1) Where an offence under this Act has been committed by a body corporate (whether a trustee savings bank or not) or by a trustee savings bank at a time when it is not a body corporate and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of a person being a trustee of the bank or a director of the body corporate or a manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate or bank, or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person as well as the body corporate or bank, as the case may be, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

(2) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (1) shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

64 Exemption from stamp duty.

64.—Stamp duty, other than stamp duty provided for in sections 67 to 75 of the Finance Act, 1973, shall not be chargeable on any transfer, conveyance or other instrument executed for the purposes of effecting an amalgamation of trustee savings banks under Part VI or the reorganisation of a trustee savings bank into a company under section 57.

65 Bonds and sureties.

65.—(1) A trustee savings bank undertaking any activity in the course of its business shall not be regarded as having contravened any provision of the Insurance Acts, 1909 to 1989, or regulations relating to insurance business made under the European Communities Act, 1972, by reason only of the fact that it gives, enters into or accepts a bond or a contract of suretyship or guarantee to which this section applies.

(2) This section applies to any bond or any contract of suretyship or guarantee which is given, or entered into, as surety or guarantor by a trustee savings bank in the course of its business or which is in the course of his banking business (within the meaning of the Central Bank Act, 1971) given or entered into, as surety or guarantor, by a person resident outside the State to satisfy, and only for the purposes of, a requirement which is both—

(a) a requirement of a trustee savings bank, and

(b) made solely for the purpose of securing financial facilities to be made available by that bank.

66 Provisions in relation to offences.

66.—(1) Summary proceedings in respect of an offence under this Act may be brought and prosecuted by the Minister or the Central Bank.

(2) Notwithstanding section 10 (4) of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851, summary proceedings for an offence under this Act may be instituted within 2 years from the date of the offence.

FIRST SCHEDULE Enactments Repealed

SECOND SCHEDULE Matters to be provided for by the Rules of a Trustee Savings Bank