Assurance Companies Act 1909
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1909 c. 49 |
| Year | 1909 |
Assurance Companies Act, 1909.
(9 Edw. 7.) CHAPTER 49.
An Act to consolidate and amend and extend to other Companies carrying on Assurance or Insurance business the Law relating to Life Assurance Companies, and for other purposes connected therewith.
[3rd December 1909]
B E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Companies to which Act applies.
Companies to which Act applies.
1 Companies to which Act applies.
1. This Act shall apply to all persons or bodies of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate, not being registered under the Acts relating to friendly societies or to trade unions (which persons and bodies of persons are hereinafter referred to as assurance companies), whether established before or after the commencement of this Act and whether established within or without the United Kingdom, who carry on within the United Kingdom assurance business of all or any of the following classes:—
subject as respects any class of assurance business to the special provisions of this Act relating to business of that class.
A company registered under the Companies Acts which transacts assurance business of any such class as aforesaid in any part of the world shall for the purposes of this provision be deemed to be a company transacting such business within the United Kingdom.
General.
2 Deposit.
(1) Every assurance company shall deposit and keep deposited with the Paymaster-General for and on behalf of the Supreme Court the sum of twenty thousand pounds.
(2) The sum so deposited shall be invested by the Paymaster-General in such of the securities usually accepted by the Court for the investment of funds placed under its administration as the company may select, and the interest accruing due on any such securities shall be paid to the company.
(3) The deposit may be made by the subscribers of the memorandum of association of the company, or any of them, in the name of the proposed company, and, upon the incorporation of the company, shall be deemed to have been made by, and to be part of the assets of, the company, and the registrar shall not issue a certificate of incorporation of the company until the deposit has been made.
(4) Where a company carries on, or intends to carry on, assurance business of more than one class, a separate sum of twenty thousand pounds shall be deposited and kept deposited under this section as respects each class of business, and the deposit made in respect of any class of business in respect of which a separate assurance fund is required to be kept shall be deemed to form part of that fund, and all interest accruing due on any such deposit or the securities in which it is for the time being invested shall be carried by the company to that fund.
(5) The Paymaster-General shall not accept a deposit except on a warrant of the Board of Trade.
(6) The Board of Trade may make rules with respect to applications for warrants, the payment of deposits, and the investment thereof or dealing therewith, the deposit of stocks or other securities in lieu of money, the payment of the interest or dividends from time to time accruing due on any securities in which deposits are for the time being invested, and the withdrawal and transfer of deposits, and the rules so made shall have effect as if they were enacted in this Act, and shall be laid before Parliament as soon as may be after they are made.
(7) This section shall apply to an assurance company registered or having its head office in Ireland, subject to the following modifications:—
References to the Supreme Court shall be construed as references to the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland, and references to the Paymaster-General shall be construed as references to the Accountant-General of the last-mentioned Court.
3 Separation of funds.
(1) In the case of an assurance company transacting other business besides that of assurance or transacting more than one class of assurance business, a separate account shall be kept of all receipts in respect of the assurance business or of each class of assurance business, and the receipts in respect of the assurance business, or, in the case of a company carrying on more than one class of assurance business, of each class of business, shall be carried to and form a separate assurance fund with an appropriate name: Provided that nothing in this section shall require the investments of any such fund to be kept separate from the investments of any other fund.
(2) A fund of any particular class shall be as absolutely the security of the policy holders of that class as though it belonged to a company carrying on no other business than assurance business of that class, and shall not be liable for any contracts of the company for which it would not have been liable had the business of the company been only that of assurance of that class, and shall not be applied, directly or indirectly, for any purposes other than those of the class of business to which the fund is applicable.
4 Accounts and balance sheets.
4. Every assurance company shall, at the expiration of each financial year of the company, prepare—
5 Actuarial report and abstract.
(1) Every assurance company shall, once in every five years, or at such shorter intervals as may be prescribed by the instrument constituting the company, or by its regulations or byelaws, cause an investigation to be made into its financial condition, including a valuation of its liabilities, by an actuary, and shall cause an abstract of the report of such actuary to be made in the form or forms set forth in the Fourth Schedule to this Act and applicable to the class or classes of assurance business carried on by the company.
(2) The foregoing provisions of this section shall also apply whenever at any other time an investigation into the financial condition of an assurance company is made with a view to the distribution of profits, or the results of which are made public.
6 Statement of assurance business.
6. Every assurance company shall prepare a statement of its assurance business at the date to which the accounts of the company are made up for the purposes of any such investigation as aforesaid in the form or forms set forth in the Fifth Schedule to this Act and applicable to the class or classes of assurance business carried on by the company: Provided that, if the investigation is made annually by any company, the company may prepare such a statement at any time, so that it be made at least once in every five years.
7 Deposit of accounts, &c. with Board of Trade.
(1) Every account, balance sheet, abstract, or statement hereinbefore required to be made shall be printed, and four copies thereof, one of which shall be signed by the chairman and two directors of the company and by the principal officer of the company and, if the company has a managing director, by the managing director, shall be deposited at the Board of Trade within six months after the close of the period to which the account, balance sheet, abstract, or statement relates: Provided that, if in any case it is made to appear to the Board of Trade that the circumstances are such that a longer period than six months should be allowed, the Board may extend that period by such period not exceeding three months as they think fit.
(2) The Board of Trade shall consider the accounts, balance sheets, abstracts, and statements so deposited, and, if any such account, balance sheet, abstract, or statement appears to the Board to be inaccurate or incomplete in any respect, the Board shall communicate with the company with a view to the correction of any such inaccuracies and the supply of deficiencies.
(3) There shall be deposited with every revenue account and balance sheet of a company any report on the affairs of the company submitted to the shareholders or policy holders of the...
To continue reading
Request your trial