Trustee Savings Banks Act 1954
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Trustee Savings Banks Act , 1954
(2 & 3 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 63
An Act to consolidate the enactments relating to trustee savings banks.
Be it enacted by the Queen'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:—
Establishment of trustee savings banks
1 Conditions under which a savings bank may obtain the benefit of this Act.
(1) A savings bank shall have the benefit of this Act (including the privilege of paying money into the Bank of England or the Bank of Ireland in return for interest-bearing receipts) if the conditions set out in this and the following section are fulfilled.
(2) A savings bank shall not have the benefit of this Act unless its formation was sanctioned and approved by the National Debt Commissioners (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the Commissioners’) or on their behalf by the Comptroller-General or Assistant Comptroller of the National Debt Office:
Provided that this subsection shall not apply to any savings bank formed before the twenty-eighth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three (that is to say the date on which the Trustee Savings Banks Act, 1863, was passed).
(3) In this and the two next following sections the expression ‘savings bank’ means a society formed in the United Kingdom for the purpose of establishing and maintaining an institution in the nature of a bank—
(a ) to accept deposits of money for the benefit of the persons making the deposits, and
(b ) to accumulate the produce of the deposits (so far as not withdrawn) at compound interest, and
(c ) to return the deposits and produce to the depositors after deducting any necessary expenses of management but without deriving any benefit from the deposits or produce.
2 Requirements as to bank rules.
(1) A savings bank shall not have the benefit of this Act unless the rules of the bank expressly provide for the matters set out in the First Schedule to this Act nor unless those rules—
(a ) have been certified and deposited with the Commissioners in pursuance of this section, and
(b ) have been entered in a book to be kept by an officer of the bank appointed for that purpose which is to be open at all proper times for inspection by depositors.
(2) For the purpose of ascertaining whether the rules are in conformity with law and with the provisions of this Act, two copies of all the rules of the bank signed by two trustees of the bank shall be submitted by the trustees and managers of the bank to the Registrar.
(3) The Registrar shall certify on each copy that the rules are in conformity with law and with the provisions of this Act or point out in what respect they are repugnant thereto.
(4) One of the copies when so certified shall be returned to the savings bank and the other copy shall be deposited by the Registrar with the Commissioners.
3 Certification of a trustee savings bank.
3. A savings bank established under this Act shall be certified under this Act by the title of ‘savings bank certified under the Trustee Savings Banks Act, 1954’ and a bank certified under this Act or the Trustee Savings Banks Act, 1863, is hereafter in this Act referred to as a ‘trustee savings bank’.
The Inspection Committee
4 Constitution of the Inspection Committee.
(1) There shall be an Inspection Committee of trustee savings banks with the several powers and duties conferred by the following provisions of this Act.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the term of office of members of the Committee and the making of appointments, and the powers, procedure and duties of the Committee shall continue to be governed by the scheme made under section two of the Savings Banks Act, 1891, in the same manner as immediately before the commencement of this Act.
(3) The Committee may, with the approval of the Commissioners, modify the said scheme, and the modification shall be laid before Parliament.
(4) A paid officer of a trustee savings bank shall not be eligible to be a member of the Committee.
(5) The Committee may act by a majority of the members present and voting at any meeting of the Committee, and may signify their acts by an instrument in writing signed by any two of the members of the Committee, and an act of the Committee shall not be invalid by reason only of any vacancy in their number.
(6) The Committee may, with the approval of the Treasury, appoint such officers as may appear to be required for the execution of the duties of the Committee under this Act.
(7) The members of the Committee shall be entitled to such remuneration by way of fees or otherwise as may be approved by the Treasury.
General provisions as to conduct of trustee savings banks
5 Title of a trustee savings bank.
5. A trustee savings bank may not be designated or described in any manner which imports that the Government is responsible or liable to depositors for money placed in the safe keeping of the bank, and may not bear any title other than that of ‘savings bank certified under the Act of 1863’ or, as the case may be, ‘savings bank certified under the Trustee Savings Banks Act, 1954’ with such additional local description, if any, as may be required for the sake of distinctiveness.
6 Amendment of bank rules.
(1) No alteration, amendment or repeal of the rules of a trustee savings bank shall take effect until it has been entered in the book mentioned in section two of this Act.
(2) Two copies of any alterations or amendments of the rules signed by two trustees shall as soon as possible be submitted by the trustees of the bank to the Registrar and the Registrar shall certify on each copy that they are in conformity with law and with the provisions of this Act or point out in what respect they are repugnant thereto:
Provided that a rule making any alteration as respects the days or hours of attendance need not be submitted to the Registrar.
(3) One of the copies when so certified shall be returned to the trustee savings bank and the other copy shall be deposited by the Registrar with the Commissioners.
7 General provisions as to bank rules.
(1) Subject to subsection (1) of the last foregoing section, the rules of a trustee savings bank, and any alterations or amendments of those rules, shall, from the time when they are certified by the Registrar, be binding on the trustees, managers and officers of the bank and on the depositors.
(2) The copy of any rules of a trustee savings bank, transmitted under this Act to the Commissioners or a true copy examined with the original copy so transmitted, and proved to be a true copy, shall be admissible as evidence of the rules in all cases.
(3) No order of certiorari shall be made to remove any rules of a trustee savings bank into the High Court.
8 Objects on which a trustee savings bank may expend money.
(1) Any expenditure incurred by a trustee savings bank which, in the opinion of the Commissioners, is calculated to further the objects of the bank shall be deemed to be necessary expenses within the meaning of section one of this Act.
(2) The trustees of a trustee savings bank may, with the consent of the Commissioners given after consultation with the Inspection Committee and the Association, and subject to such conditions as the Commissioners after such consultation as aforesaid may impose either generally or in the case of any particular bank, undertake any business which is, in the opinion of the Commissioners, calculated to encourage thrift and within the financial capacity of the bank.
(3) The trustees of a trustee savings bank may defray all or any of the expenses of a penny savings bank which has a deposit account with the trustee savings bank.
(4) Any expenses properly incurred by a bank in carrying on such a business as is mentioned in subsection (2) of this section, and any expenses defrayed under subsection (3) of this section shall be deemed to be necessary expenses within the meaning of section one of this Act.
(5) In this Act the expression ‘the Association’ means the association registered under the Companies Acts, 1908 to 1917, by the name of the Trustee Savings Banks Association.
9 Bank property to be held by custodian trustees.
(1) All property of whatsoever description belonging to a trustee savings bank, including things in action or interests arising out of or incident to any property, shall be vested in the custodian trustees of the bank to be appointed under this section.
(2) It shall be the duty of the trustees of every trustee savings bank (in this section referred to as ‘the general trustees’) as soon as may be to appoint out of their own number four persons to be the custodian trustees of the bank, and from time to time, when a vacancy occurs in the number of the custodian trustees, to appoint out of their own number a person to fill the vacancy.
(3) If the general trustees of a trustee savings bank fail, within three months after the occurrence of a vacancy in the number of the custodian trustees, to fill the vacancy the power of the general trustees to fill the vacancy shall be transferred to the Inspection Committee, and the Committee shall fill the vacancy accordingly.
(4) The Inspection Committee may, on the application of the general trustees of a trustee savings bank, remove any custodian...
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