Savings Banks Act, 1880

Investment of deposits in savings banks in Government stock.

33 & 34 Vict. c. 71.

3. (1.) Subject to the regulations under this Act, any deposit in a trustee or Post Office savings bank, or any part of such deposit, may on the request of the depositor be invested by the savings bank authority in any Government stock; provided that—

(a.) The sum invested shall not be less than ten pounds, or the amount of the current price of ten pounds stock with the addition of the commission, whichever sum is least.

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(2.) Subject to the regulations under this Act, the depositor may request the savings bank authority to sell the stock standing to his account, or any part of such stock, not less than ten pounds stock, or than stock of the value of ten pounds over and above the commission, whichever is least.

(3.) Upon request from a depositor for an investment in stock under this section, the savings bank authority shall, in the prescribed manner, and on the prescribed day, not later than seven days after the receipt of the request, charge the depositor with the current price on that day of the stock and the commission, and credit the depositor with the equivalent amount of stock out of stock standing to the savings bank investment account of the National Debt Commissioners, and send to the depositor a certificate thereof in the prescribed form.

(4.) On a request for a sale of stock under this section the savings bank authority shall, in the prescribed manner, and on the prescribed day, not later than seven days after the receipt of the request, discharge the savings bank investment account of the National Debt Commissioners from the proper amount of stock and write the same off from the account of that depositor, and credit him with the current price on the said day of that stock after deducting commission, and shall forthwith pay over the same to him.

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(6.) For the purpose of an immediate investment under this section a deposit to an amount not exceeding the value of one hundred pounds stock with the commission may be deposited in one savings bank year, and in computing the maximum amount of deposit allowable for a depositor in a savings bank, the value of the amount of stock credited to the account of that depositor, or any sum deposited for the sole purpose of an immediate investment in stock, shall not be reckoned, and if by the price of any stock being credited to him as aforesaid, or by the deposit of any sum for immediate investment in stock, his deposit is raised so as to be in excess of the said maximum, that excess shall not be deemed unlawful.

(7.) Subject to the regulations under this Act all sums received by any savings bank authority for investment in Government stock shall be paid over to the National Debt Commissioners, and shall be invested in like manner as other moneys in the hands of those Commissioners, and all sums required for the payment of the sums credited to depositors as the price of stock sold shall be provided and paid by the National Debt Commissioners in like manner as sums required to repay deposits in saving banks.

The National Debt Commissioners shall keep to the prescribed account (in this Act referred to as the savings bank investment account) such amount of and description of Government stock as is sufficient to meet the amounts and description of stock credited to depositors in pursuance of this Act.

(8.) Subject to the regulations under this Act, on a request from a depositor to obtain for him a stock certificate with coupons annexed, under the National Debt Act, 1870, for such amount of stock standing to his account, being either fifty pounds or a multiple of fifty pounds, as is specified in the request, the savings bank authority shall, in the prescribed manner, write off the amount of stock from the account of the said depositor, and procure from the National Debt Commissioners a stock certificate for the same amount of stock.

Provided, that the sum required to pay for the commission, the expenses, and the fee for the stock certificate shall be paid by, or debited in account to, the depositor in the prescribed manner.

(9.) There shall be charged the prescribed commission on the investment and sale of stock and on the receipt of the dividends under this section, and such commission shall be applied in the prescribed manner in defraying the expenses incurred in carrying into effect this section.

(10.) The current price for purchases and sales respectively on any day shall be a price to be ascertained and certified on that day in the prescribed manner.

(11.) Subject to the regulations made under this Act all enactments for the time being in force relating to savings banks, and all regulations made in pursuance of those enactments, shall, so far as is consistent with the tenour thereof, be construed in like manner as if the stock standing to the credit of any account were a deposit.