Insurance Act - Singapore Statutes Online

Administration and enforcement

Appointment of assistants

50.—(1) Subject to subsection (1A), the Authority may appoint any person to exercise any of its powers or perform any of its functions or duties under this Act, either generally or in any particular case, except the power to make subsidiary legislation.

[41/2001]

[23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

(1A) The Authority may, by notification published in the Gazette, appoint one or more of its officers to exercise the power to grant an exemption to any person (not being an exemption granted to a class of persons) under a provision of this Act specified in the Second Schedule, or to revoke any such exemption.

[23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

(2) Any person appointed by the Authority under subsection (1) shall be deemed to be a public servant for the purposes of the Penal Code (Cap. 224).

[41/2001]

51. [Repealed by Act 24/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

Exemption

52.—(1) The Authority may, by regulations, exempt any person or class of persons from all or any of the provisions of this Act, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.

[41/2001]

(1A) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Authority may make regulations to exempt any person or class of persons from section 3 or 35W and, in making these regulations, the Authority may make such provisions as it thinks fit to regulate the person or class of persons, whether by modification of provisions of this Act or by imposing such other requirements or restrictions as may be prescribed.

[23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

(2) The Authority may, on the application of any person, exempt the person from all or any of the provisions of this Act or any direction by notice in writing if the Authority considers it appropriate to do so in the circumstances of the case.

[41/2001]

[23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

(3) An exemption under subsection (2) —

(a)	may be granted subject to such terms or conditions as the Authority may specify by notice in writing; and
(b)	need not be published in the Gazette. [41/2001]

(4) An exemption granted under this section may be withdrawn by the Authority at any time.

[11/86]

Statistics

53.—(1) Without prejudice to the generality of section 64(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; 41/2001]

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of section 64(1) and (2), the Authority may prescribe or specify in directions the form or manner in which statistical information shall be furnished by Singapore insurers or insurance intermediaries to the Authority.

[23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

(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.

Service of notice, etc.

54.—(1) Unless otherwise expressly provided in this Act, any notice, order or document required or authorised by this Act to be given to or served on any person may be given to or served on the person —

(a)

by delivering it to the person or to some adult member or employee of his family or household at his last known place of residence;

(b)

by leaving it at his usual or last known place of residence or business in an envelope addressed to him;

(c)

by sending it by registered post addressed to the person at his usual or last known place of residence or business; or

(d)

in the case of a body corporate, a partnership or a body of persons —

(i)	by delivering it to the secretary or other like officer of the body corporate, partnership or body of persons at its registered office or principal place of business; or
(ii)	by sending it by registered post addressed to the body corporate, partnership or body of persons at its registered office or principal place of business. [41/2001]

(2) Any notice, order or document sent by registered post to any person in accordance with subsection (1) shall be deemed to be duly served on the person to whom the letter is addressed at the time when the letter would, in the ordinary course of post, be delivered.

[41/2001]

(3) When proving service of the notice, order or document, it shall be sufficient to prove that the envelope containing the notice, order or document was properly addressed, stamped and posted by registered post.

[41/2001]

General provisions as to offences

55.—(1) Any person who —

(a)	signs any document lodged with the Authority under section 36, 37 or 49FD(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 $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.

[11/86; 32/93; 41/2001]

[16/2011 wef 01/05/2011]

(2) Any person who is guilty of any breach of a duty imposed on him by this Act or any direction issued by the Authority under section 64(2) shall be guilty of an offence and, where no penalty is expressly provided, shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $12,500 and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding $1,250 for every day during which the offence continues after conviction.

[11/86; 32/93; 30/99; 41/2001]

[23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

(3) Where an offence under this Act is committed by any corporation, any person who, at the time of the commission of the offence, is a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of that corporation, or is purporting to act in that capacity, shall be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly 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.

[41/2001]

[23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

(4) Where an offence under this Act is committed by a corporation, being an offence consisting in the breach of a duty imposed only on corporations, any individual guilty of the offence (whether under 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]

[23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

(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.

(6) The Authority may, without instituting proceedings against any person for an offence under this Act which is punishable only by a fine, demand and receive the amount of such fine or such reduced amount as it thinks fit from that person, whereupon —

(a)	if that person pays such amount to the Authority within 14 days after the demand, no proceedings shall be taken against him in relation to the offence; and
(b)	if that person does not pay the amount so demanded, the Authority may cause proceedings to be instituted in relation to the offence. [41/2001]

(7) [Deleted by Act 23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

Penalties for corporations

55A.—(1) Subject to subsection (2), where a corporation is convicted of an offence under this Act, the penalty that the court may impose is a fine not exceeding 2 times the maximum amount that the court could, but for this subsection, impose as a fine for that offence.

[41/2001]

[23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply to any offence under this Act consisting in the breach of a duty imposed only on corporations.

[41/2001]

[23/2003 wef 01/01/2004]

(3) Where an individual is convicted of an offence under this Act by virtue of section 55(3), he shall be liable to the fine or imprisonment or both as prescribed for that offence and subsection (1) shall not apply.

[41/2001]

Jurisdiction of court

56. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 68), a District Court and a Magistrate’s Court shall have jurisdiction to try any offence under this Act and shall have power to impose the full penalty or punishment in respect of any offence under this Act.

[11/86]

Extra-territoriality of Act

56A.—(1) Where a person does an act partly in and partly outside Singapore which, if done wholly in Singapore, would constitute an offence against any provision of this Act, that person shall be guilty of that offence as if the act were carried out by that person wholly in Singapore, and may be dealt with as if the offence were committed wholly in Singapore.

[41/2001]

(2) Where —

(a)	a person does an act outside Singapore which has a substantial and reasonably foreseeable effect in Singapore; and
(b)	that act would, if carried out in Singapore, constitute an offence under section 3, 6, 35S or 35W,

that person shall be guilty of that offence as if the act were carried out by that person in Singapore, and may be dealt with as if the offence were committed in Singapore.

[41/2001]

(3) The Authority may, by regulations, specify the circumstances under which subsection (2) does not apply.

[41/2001]

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