Classification
of insurance business and construction of references to matters connected
with insurance
Section 2
(1) For
the purposes of this Act, insurance business shall be divided into 2
classes —
(a) life business,
which in addition to all insurance business concerned with life policies
shall include, in the case of any insurer, any type of insurance business
carried on as incidental only to the insurer’s other life business;
and
(b) general business,
that is to say, all insurance business which is not life business,
and shall include the effecting and carrying out by any person, not
being a person licensed under the Monetary Authority of Singapore
Act (Cap. 186), Banking Act (Cap. 19), Finance Companies Act (Cap.
108), Securities Industry Act (Cap. 289) or Futures Trading Act (Cap.
116), of contracts for fidelity bonds, performance bonds, administration
bonds, bail bonds or customs bonds or similar contracts of guarantee,
being contracts effected by way of business (and not merely incidental
to some other business carried on by the person effecting them) in
return for the payment of one or more premiums.
[32/93]
(2) For the purposes
of this Act, the reinsurance of liabilities under insurance policies
shall be treated as insurance business of the class and type to which
the policies would have belonged if they had been issued by the reinsurer.
(3) Notwithstanding
anything in subsections (1) and (2), if the Authority is satisfied that
any part of an insurer’s business which belongs to a particular class
or type of insurance business ought in the insurer’s case to be treated
as belonging to another class or type, the Authority may direct that
it shall be so treated for the purposes of this Act.
[11/86]
(4) For the purposes
of this Act, references to carrying on insurance business include the
carrying it on through an agent, or as agent; but “insurer” does not
include an insurance agent as such nor, in the case of a person who
is both insurer and insurance agent, have reference to business done
as insurance agent.
(5) For the purposes
of this Act, “Singapore insurer” means a person who is or has been carrying
on insurance business in Singapore as an insurer; and references to
carrying on insurance business, or any class of insurance business,
in Singapore include, but include only, the receipt of proposals for,
or issuing of, policies in Singapore or the collection or receipt in
Singapore of premiums on insurance policies.
[11/86;30/99]
(6) The operation,
otherwise than for profit, of a scheme or arrangement relating to service
in particular offices or employments, and having for its object or one
of its objects to make provision in respect of persons serving therein
against future retirement or partial retirement, or against future termination
of service through death or disability, or against similar matters,
shall not be treated for the purposes of this Act as carrying on the
business of insurance.
(7) For the purposes
of this Act, no society registered under the Societies Act (Cap. 311)
or organisation registered under the Mutual Benefit Organisations Act
(Cap. 191) or company engaged primarily in the business of export credit
insurance shall be deemed to be an insurer, and no agent for such a
society, organisation or company shall as such be deemed to be an insurance
agent; nor shall references in this Act to a policy or contract of insurance
apply to any policy or contract whereby an insurance is effected with
such a society, organisation or company.
[50/75]
(8) The definitions
set out in the First Schedule shall have effect for the construction
of references in this Act to policies of insurance, policy owners and
policy moneys.
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