Finance Companies Act

(CHAPTER 108)

(Original Enactment: Act 43 of 1967)

REVISED EDITION 1995

(15th March 1995)

An Act to license and control finance companies and for matters connected therewith.

[10th January 1968]

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Finance Companies Act.

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“agreement” means an agreement whether formal or informal and whether express or implied;

“auditor” means any person approved by the Authority as a finance company auditor for the purposes of this Act;

“Authority” means the Monetary Authority of Singapore established under section 3 of the Monetary Authority of Singapore Act [Cap. 186];

“capital funds”, in relation to a finance company, means the paid-up capital and published reserves of that company deduction having been made in respect of any debit balance appearing in the profit and loss account of the company;

“company” means a company incorporated or registered under the Companies Act [Cap. 50] or pursuant to any corresponding previous written law;

“credit facilities” means —

(a)	the granting by a finance company of advances, loans and other facilities whereby a customer of the finance company has access to funds or financial guarantees; or
(b)	the incurring by a finance company of other liabilities on behalf of a customer;

“deposit” means a loan of money at interest or repayable at a premium but does not include a loan to a company or other body corporate upon terms involving the issue of debentures or other securities;

“depositor” means a person entitled, or prospectively entitled, to repayment of a deposit whether made by him or not;

“director” includes any person occupying the position of director of a finance company by whatever name called and includes a person in accordance with whose directions or instructions the directors of a finance company are accustomed to act and an alternate or substitute director;

“finance company” means any company licensed under this Act to carry on financing business, and all branches and offices in Singapore of such a company shall be deemed to be one finance company for the purposes of this Act;

“financing business” means the business of —

(a)	borrowing money from the public, by acceptance of deposits and issuing certificates or other documents acknowledging or evidencing indebtedness to the public and undertaking to repay the money on call or after an agreed maturity period; and
(b)	lending money to the public or to a company deemed to be related to the finance company by virtue of section 6 of the Companies Act [Cap. 50] (referred to in this Act as the related company) on the basis that the public or the related company undertakes to repay the money, whether within an agreed period of time or not, or by instalments,

and includes the business of financing hire-purchase transactions arising out of hire-purchase agreements, as defined in the Hire-Purchase Act [Cap. 125], where the money used, or to be used, for such business is borrowed from the public and such other business as the Authority may prescribe for the purposes of this Act;

“Government securities” has the same meaning as in the Government Securities Act [Cap. 121A];

“officer”, in relation to a corporation, includes —

(a)	a director, secretary or employee of a corporation;
(b)	a receiver or manager of any part of the undertaking of the corporation appointed under a power contained in any instrument; and
(c)	the liquidator of a company appointed in a voluntary winding up;

“person” includes a corporation;

“public company” means a company incorporated in Singapore other than a private company;

“published reserves”, in relation to a finance company, means reserves which appear in the accounts of the finance company but does not include any reserves which are represented by the writing down of the value of assets or by provision for the depreciation of fixed assets or which are maintained for any specific purposes;

“share”, in relation to a finance company, means a share in the share capital of a finance company and includes an interest in such a share.

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