Savings Banks Act, 1891

Forfeiture of illegal deposits.

26 & 27 Vict. c. 87.

50 & 51 Vict. c. 40.

12.(1) If any person at any time has a deposit in more than one savings bank in the United Kingdom, or has deposits standing to the credit of more than one account in the same savings bank in the United Kingdom, he shall be liable to forfeit any amount illegally deposited, either as to the whole thereof, or to such extent as in the case of deposits to the credit of more than one account in a Post Office savings bank, the Postmaster General, and in any other case the National Debt Commissioners may think just in the circumstances of the case, and any money so forfeited shall be paid to the National Debt Commissioners and applied to the reduction of the National Debt.

Provided as follows:—

(a) Where a trustee savings bank has suspended payment, nothing in the Trustee Savings Banks Act, 1863, or in this Act, shall prevent a depositor in that bank from subsequently opening or having an account in any other savings bank;

(b) Nothing in this section or in any other enactment relating to savings banks shall prevent a friendly society from having deposits in more than one savings bank in the United Kingdom, or from having deposits standing to the credit of more than one account in the same savings bank in the United Kingdom, and a person making a deposit in a savings bank on behalf of a friendly society shall not be bound to make a declaration to the effect that the society is not entitled to any benefit from deposits in that or any other savings bank.

(2) Regulations made by the Treasury and the Postmaster General respectively, under the Savings Banks Act, 1887, may provide for the addition of one or more names to an account already in a savings bank, and may provide that the addition of such names shall not be deemed to be the opening of a new account in the bank.