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Administration
and enforcement
Appointment of assistants
Section 50. The Authority may authorise or appoint any person to assist
it in the exercise of its functions and duties under this Act, either
generally or in any particular case.
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Immunity from suit of Authority and its
employees, etc.
Section 51. No suit or other legal proceedings shall lie against the
Authority or any officer or employee of the Authority or any person
acting under the direction of the Authority for any act done in good
faith in the performance, or intended performance, of any duty, or in
the exercise of any power under this Act or any regulations made thereunder,
or for any neglect or default in the performance or exercise in good
faith of such duty or power.
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Exemption
Section 52. (1) The Authority may, subject to such condition as it
may think fit, exempt any person or class of persons from all or any
of the provisions of this Act.
[11/86]
(2) An exemption granted under this section may be withdrawn by the
Authority at any time.
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Statistics
Section 53. (1) Regulations may provide —
(a) for the collection by or on behalf of the Authority, at such intervals
or on such occasions as may be prescribed, of statistical information
as to such matters relevant to insurance as may be prescribed; and
(b) for the collection and use of statistical information for any
purpose, whether or not connected with insurance.
[11/86]
(2) Such regulations may make provision for requiring Singapore insurers
to furnish to the Authority, in the prescribed form, such information
as may be prescribed.
[11/86;30/99]
(3) No use shall be made of any information obtained by or on behalf
of the Authority by virtue only of this section except in a form which
does not disclose the affairs of any particular person.
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Service of notices
Section 54. For the purposes of the Interpretation Act (Cap. 1), a letter
containing a notice or other document to be served by the Authority
under this Act shall be deemed to be addressed to the proper place if
it is addressed to the place in Singapore which the addressee last indicated
to the Authority as his address or to the addressee’s latest address
in Singapore known to the Authority.
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General provisions as to offences
Section 55. (1) Any person who —
(a) signs any document lodged with the Authority under section 36,
37 or 49 (1) (a); or
(b) furnishes the Authority with any information under or for the
purposes of any other provision of this Act,
shall use due care to secure that the document or information is not
false in any material particular; and if he does not use due care in
this behalf and the document or information is false in a material particular,
he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to
a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
2 years or to both.
[11/86;32/93]
(2) Any person who is guilty of any breach of a duty imposed on him
by this Act or any regulations made thereunder or any direction issued
by the Authority under section 64 (2) as being or having been an insurer
shall, in a case where no other punishment is provided for by this Act
or any regulations made thereunder, be liable on conviction to a fine
not exceeding $5,000 and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a
further fine not exceeding $1,000 for every day during which the offence
continues after conviction.
[11/86;32/93;30/99]
(3) Where an offence under this Act or any regulations made thereunder
is committed by any company or body corporate, any person who, at the
time of the commission of the offence, is a director, manager, secretary
or other similar officer of that company or body corporate, or is purporting
to act in that capacity, shall be guilty of the offence unless he proves
that he exercised all such diligence to prevent the commission of the
offence as he ought to have exercised, having regard to the nature of
his functions in that capacity and to all the circumstances.
(4) Where an offence under this Act or any regulations made thereunder
is committed by a company or body corporate, being an offence consisting
in the breach of a duty imposed only on companies and bodies corporate,
any individual guilty of the offence (whether by virtue of subsection
(3) or otherwise) shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for
a term not exceeding 12 months in addition to or in substitution for
any fine.
[11/86;32/93]
(5) For the purpose of any proceedings under subsection (1) (a),
a document purporting to be signed by any person shall be presumed to
have been signed by him, unless the contrary is proved.
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Jurisdiction of Courts
Section 56. A District Court or a Magistrate’s Court shall, notwithstanding
the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 68), have jurisdiction to try any
offence under this Act and may impose the full penalty or punishment
in respect of such offence.
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Miscellaneous amendments of law
Insurable interest required for life insurances
Section 57. (1) A life policy insuring the life of anyone, other than
the person effecting the insurance or a person connected with him as
mentioned in subsection (2), shall be void unless the person effecting
the insurance has an insurable interest in that life at the time the
insurance is effected; and the policy moneys paid under such a policy
shall not exceed the amount of that insurable interest at that time.
(2) The lives excepted from subsection (1), besides that of the person
effecting the insurance, are those of that person’s wife or husband,
of that person’s child or ward being under the age of majority at the
time the insurance is effected, and of anyone on whom that person is
at that time wholly or partly dependent.
(3) In this section, “insuring the life of a person” means insuring
the payment of money (or the equivalent) on that person’s death or on
the happening of any contingency dependent on the termination or continuance
of that person’s life, and includes granting an annuity to commence
on that death or at a time to be determined by reference thereto or
to any such contingency.
(4) In so far as in the case of any life policy the policy moneys do
not consist wholly of a cash payment due on the death in question, the
limit under this section on the amount to be paid shall be applied by
reference to the value of the right to the policy moneys immediately
after the death or the happening before the death of any event on which
they become payable.
(5) This section shall not affect policies issued before 1st January
1967.
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Capacity of infant to insure
Section 58. (1) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, a person over
the age of 10 years shall not, by reason only of being under the age
of majority, lack the capacity to enter into a contract of insurance;
but a person under the age of 16 years shall not have the capacity to
enter into such a contract except with the consent in writing of his
parent or guardian.
(2) This section shall be deemed always to have had effect.
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Life policy moneys to be paid without
deduction
Section 59. (1) Any policy moneys payable under a life policy or moneys
payable on the surrender of a life policy shall be paid without any
deduction for sums not due under the policy or under an agreement charging
them on the policy, unless the deduction is made with the consent of
the person entitled to those moneys; and any provision contained in
a life policy or in any agreement relating thereto shall be void, in
so far as it entitles the insurer to make any such deduction without
that consent.
(2) Subsection (1) shall apply to all Singapore policies, but shall
not apply to any other policy issued before 1st January 1967.
(3) In any proceedings for the recovery of policy moneys due under the
life policy or of moneys payable on the surrender of a life policy,
no set-off or counterclaim shall be allowed except for sums due under
the policy or under an agreement charging them on the policy.
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Life policies (surrenders, non-payment
of premiums, paid-up policies)
Section 60. (1) Where a life policy, has been in force for 3 years
or more, the policy owner may by notice in writing to the insurer surrender
the policy and shall thereupon become entitled to receive the surrender
value thereof, determined in accordance with such rules as may be prescribed
(but subject to any deduction for sums due under the policy or under
an agreement charging them on the policy).
[30/99]
(2) Where a life policy has been in force for 3 years or more, the policy
shall not lapse or be forfeited by reason of the non-payment of premiums,
but shall have effect subject to such modifications as to the period
for which it is to be in force or the benefits receivable thereunder
or both as may be determined in accordance with any system adopted by
the insurer and applicable to the policy; and —
(a) in the case of a policy issued as a Singapore policy after 1st
January 1967 or as an offshore policy issued after 1st January 1987,
the system shall require the approval of the Authority, and shall
be that adopted and applicable at the time the policy is issued, and
the policy shall contain a statement in a form approved by the Authority
of the effect of this subsection in relation to the policy; and
(b) in any other case, unless the system is determined by the policy,
the system shall be that which at the time when this section becomes
applicable to the policy would apply to a like policy then issued
as a Singapore policy.
[11/86]
(3) Where a life policy has been in force for 3 years or more, the policy
owner may by notice in writing to the insurer elect to exchange the
policy for a paid-up policy, which shall be a non-participating policy
for an amount determined in accordance with such rules as may be prescribed,
but with no other modification not required by this Act or some other
written law.
(4) A policy issued in place of an earlier policy shall, for the purposes
of this section (including this subsection), be treated as having been
in force since the earlier policy began to be in force; but this shall
not affect the operation in relation to a policy of subsection (2) (a)
or (b).
(5) Subsections (1) to (3) shall not apply —
(a) to a policy securing the grant of an annuity for a term dependent
upon human life; or
(b) to a policy under which no policy moneys are necessarily payable,
not being a policy which provides for the payment of policy moneys
on a death after a specified period.
(6) As respects policies of any prescribed description, subsections
(1), (2) and (3) shall have effect subject to such modifications as
may be prescribed.
(7) The rights conferred by this section shall be in addition to, and
not in derogation of, any other rights available to the policy owner
under the terms of the policy or otherwise; but this section shall not
be taken to confer on a policy owner any rights except against the insurer
as such.
(8) This section shall apply to policies whenever issued; and, subject
to subsection (5), shall extend to any Singapore policy and offshore
policy.
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Payment of life policy and personal accident
claims without probate, etc.
Section 61. (1) In any case where the policy owner of any life policy
or personal accident policy of an insurer dies, and the policy moneys
are payable thereunder on his death, the insurer may make payment to
any proper claimant a prescribed amount of the policy moneys of all
such policies issued by the insurer on the deceased’s life without the
production of any probate or letters of administration; and the insurer
shall be discharged from all liability in respect of the amount paid.
[11/86]
(2) If, in any case as is mentioned in subsection (1), estate duty is
payable in Singapore on any such policy moneys as are there mentioned,
the insurer may, notwithstanding section 44 (2) of the Estate Duty Act
(Cap. 96), pay to any proper claimant a prescribed amount of the policy
moneys of all such policies issued by the insurer, without the policy
moneys having been included in such a schedule or certificate as is
mentioned in that subsection.
[11/86]
(3) Before making any payment under subsection (2), the insurer shall
give notice by registered post to the Commissioner of Estate Duties
with such particulars as the Commissioner may require.
[11/86]
(4) Subsection (2) shall apply in relation to policy moneys under policies
of which the deceased was not the policy owner at his death as it applies
in relation to any such policy moneys as are mentioned in subsection
(1).
[22/73;11/86]
(5) Where an amount is paid under subsection (2) on account of any policy
moneys, the insurer may, before payment of the balance of such policy
moneys to any proper claimant, apply the whole or part of the policy
moneys to pay any unpaid estate duty payable on the death of the insured.
[11/86]
(6) In this section —
(a) “policy owner” includes a part owner of a policy;
(b) “proper claimant” means a person who claims to be entitled to
the sums in question as executor of the deceased, or who claims to
be entitled to that sum (whether for his own benefit or not) and is
the widower, widow, parent, child, brother, sister, nephew or niece
of the deceased; and
(c) in deducing any relationship for the purposes of this subsection,
an illegitimate person shall be treated as the legitimate child of
his actual parents.
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No insurance to be made unless insurer
has interest and no policy without inserting names (UK Life Assurance
Act 1774)
Section 62. (1) No insurance shall be made by any person on any event
wherein the person for whose use or benefit or on whose account the
policy is made has no interest, or by way of gaming or wagering; and
every assurance made contrary to this subsection shall be void.
[35/93]
(2) It shall not be lawful to make any policy on any event without inserting
in such policy the names of the persons interested therein, or for whose
use or benefit or on whose account such policy was made.
[35/93]
(3) In all cases where there is an interest in such event, no greater
sum shall be recovered or received from the insurer than the amount
or value of the interest.
[35/93]
(4) Nothing in this section shall extend to insurance made by any person
on ships or goods, or to contracts of indemnity against loss by fire
or loss by other events whatsoever.
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No action for accidental fire (UK Fire
Prevention (Metropolis) Act 1774, s. 86)
Section 63. No action shall lie against a person in whose house or premises
or on whose estate any fire accidentally began except that no contract
or agreement made between landlord and tenant shall be hereby defeated
or made void.
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Supplementary
Regulations
Section 64. (1) The Authority may make regulations for carrying into
effect the objects of this Act, and for prescribing anything which under
this Act is to be prescribed.
[11/86;32/93]
(2) The Authority may issue such directions as it may consider necessary
for carrying into effect the objects of this Act.
[11/86;32/93]
(3) In this Act, “regulations” means regulations made by the Authority,
“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations and “directions” includes
notices and circulars.
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Miscellaneous definitions
Section 65. (1) In this Act —
"accounting period" , in relation to any insurer, means the period
beginning from the commencement of its business in Singapore or 1st
January of any year, as the case may be, and ending on 31st December
of that year for which accounts relating to the insurance business
carried on by the insurer in Singapore are kept and for which an insurance
fund has been established under this Act, unless otherwise allowed
by the Authority;
"actuary" means a Fellow of any prescribed institute;
"Authority" means the Monetary Authority of Singapore established
under the Monetary Authority of Singapore Act (Cap. 186);
"registered insurer" means an insurer which is for the time being
registered by the Authority under this Act;
“statutory balance-sheet” and “statutory valuation” mean respectively
a balance-sheet lodged with the Authority in order to comply with
section 36 (1), and a valuation of which the results are shown in
a valuation balance-sheet lodged with it on an actuarial investigation
made in order to comply with section 37 (1).
[11/86; 32/93;30/99]
(2) In this Act —
(a) any reference to the last statutory balance-sheet or to the last
statutory valuation shall be construed as referring to that last prepared
or made and not superseded by the arrival of the date as at which
another is to be prepared or made; and
(b) any reference to there being shown in a statutory balance-sheet
or on a statutory valuation a surplus of assets over liabilities of
an insurance fund shall be construed accordingly by reference to the
prescribed form of balance-sheet or valuation balance-sheet and to
the rules to be followed under this Act and the regulations in preparing
it.
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