PART IX

Savings Protection

93. —(1) A building society shall not exercise any function to which an authorisation under section 17 relates unless it maintains on deposit with the Central Bank an amount determined in accordance with this section.

(2) The amount of a deposit by a society under this section shall be a sum equal to 0.2 per cent., or such other proportion as may be prescribed in regulations made under section 94 , of the society's total liabilities in respect of—

(a) shares and deposits (including deposits on current accounts if any, but, subject to paragraph (b), excluding shares and deposits specified in subsection (4) and deposits represented by negotiable certificates of deposit) denominated in Irish pounds, and

(b) such other shares and deposits as may be prescribed in regulations made under section 94 ,

issued or held by a society at its offices in the State but shall not be less than £20,000.

(3) The amount of the deposit shall be calculated by the Central Bank as soon as practicable after the commencement of this section or at the time of granting an authorisation, as may be appropriate, and shall be recalculated in respect of every society every 12 months (or as close thereto as reasonably practicable) thereafter by reference to such returns as are made by the society at the request of the Bank.

(4) For the purpose of calculating its deposit under this section, shares in and deposits with a society by any of the following shall not be reckoned, that is to say—

(a) another society,

(b) a bank,

(c) a trustee savings bank certified under the Trustees Savings Banks Acts, 1863 to 1979,

(d) the Agricultural Credit Corporation public limited company,

(e) the company formed and registered by virtue of section 2 of the Industrial Credit Act, 1933 ,

(f) any person not being a bank, established outside the State who, in the opinion of the Central Bank, is duly authorised outside the State to carry on the business of banking,

(g) such other persons as may be prescribed in regulations made under section 94 .

(5) The amount of a deposit under this section shall, where necessary, be increased to the appropriate amount calculated under subsection (3) not later than 7 days, or such longer period as the Central Bank may agree to in writing, after the date of the receipt by the society of notification from the Bank of the amount required to effect the increase.

(6) The Central Bank may settle the amount of a deposit under this section at the nearest round figure in hundreds of pounds and by rounding up to such a figure where the amount calculated under subsection (3) is divisible in pounds by £50.

(7) A deposit under this section shall carry interest at such a rate or rates and payable in such manner and at such times as may be determined by the Central Bank from time to time.

(8) Any charge purported to be created on a deposit under this section other than by the Central Bank shall be void.

(9) A deposit under this section shall not be subject to any form of execution in satisfaction of any claim, or any judgment, order or decree of any court in the State in favour of any creditor, otherwise than under and in accordance with the provisions of this Act or regulations made thereunder.

94. —(1) The Minister may, after consultation with the Minister for Finance and the Central Bank, by regulations, provide for the application, subject to such modifications as he considers necessary, to shareholdings in and deposits with building societies of the provisions of any enactment for the protection to any extent of deposits with banks (“the savings protection scheme”).

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), regulations under that subsection may—

(a) provide for the transfer of deposits maintained by building societies with the Central Bank by virtue of section 93 to any account maintained by the Bank for the purposes of the savings protection scheme,

(b) provide, as necessary, for the treatment of shareholdings in a society as deposits with the society for the purposes of the scheme,

(c) provide for the exclusion of a specified class of shareholders in and depositors with a society from protection under the scheme,

(d) specify any class of shareholdings in and deposits with a society that may benefit under the scheme,

(e) change, as necessary, the rights and duties of a liquidator in the winding up of a society,

(f) require that, where the liability of a society to a person is related to both shares and deposits, the amount of any payment under the scheme be first applied to reducing the liability of the society in respect of the shares,

(g) provide for other payments in prescribed circumstances to be charged on the account referred to in paragraph (a),

(h) provide for the amendment as necessary of the relevant enactments referred to in subsection (1),

(i) prescribe shares and deposits for the purposes of section 93 (2) (b) and (4) (g).