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Banks Act, 1990 (Act No. 94 of 1990)

Chapter VII : Provisions relating to aspects of the Conduct of the Business of a Bank

78. Undesirable practices

 

(1) A bank
(a) shall not hold shares in any company of which such bank is a subsidiary;
(b) shall not lend money to any person against security of its own shares or of shares of that bank’s controlling company;

[Section 78(1)(b) substituted by section 56(a) of Act No. 19 of 2003]

(c) shall not, for the purpose of furthering the sale of its own shares, grant unsecured loans or loans against security which in the opinion of the Authority is inadequate;
(d) shall hold all its assets in its own name, excluding any asset—
(i) bona fide hypothecated to secure an actual or potential liability;
(ii) in respect of which the Authority has, on application of the bank concerned, approved in writing that such asset may be held in the name of another person; or
(iii) falling within a category of assets designated by the Authority by notice in the Gazette as a category of assets which may be held in the name of another person;
(e) shall not show in its financial statements or in any return referred to in section 75(1)(b) as an asset any amount representing the cost of organization or extension or the purchase of a business or a loss (including a loss originating from the sale of an asset) or bad debts;
(f) shall not before provision has been made out of profits for the items referred to in paragraph (e)—
(i) open any branch or agency or any further branch or agency; or
(ii) pay out dividends on its shares;
(g) shall not, for the purpose of effecting a money lending transaction directly between a lender and a borrower, perform any act in the capacity of an agent except where the funds to be lent in terms of the money lending transaction are entrusted by the lender to the bank subject to a written contract of agency in which, in addition to any other terms thereof, at least the following matters shall be recorded:
(i) Confirmation by the lender that the bank acts as the agent of the lender;
(ii) that the lender assumes, except in so far as the lender may in law have a right of recovery against the bank, all risks connected with the placing by the bank of the funds entrusted to it by the lender, as well as the responsibility to ensure that the bank executes the lender’s instructions as recorded in the written contract of agency; and
(iii) that no express or implied guarantee regarding the payment of any amount of money owing by one person to another in pursuance of the relevant money lending transaction is furnished by the bank;

[Section 78(1)(g) substituted by section 56(b) of Act No. 19 of 2003]

(h) shall not in its accounting records record any asset at a value increased by the amount of a loss incurred upon the realization of another asset;
(i) shall not conclude a repurchase agreement in respect of a fictitious asset or an asset created by means of a simulated transaction; and
(j) shall not purport to have concluded a repurchase agreement without—
(i) such agreement being substantiated by a written document signed by the other party thereto; and
(ii) the details of such agreement being recorded in the accounts of the bank as well as in the accounts, if any, kept by the bank in the name of such other party.
(k) shall not, without the prior written approval of the Authority and notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any law, pay out dividends from its share capital.

[Section 78(1)(k) inserted by section 56(c) of Act No. 19 of 2003]

 

(2) The Authority may—
(a) in writing notify a bank that a practice employed by that bank and specified in the notice constitutes an undesirable practice for that bank; or

[Section 78(2)(a) substituted by section 25(b) of Act No. 9 of 1993]

(b) by notice in the Gazette declare a practice specified in that notice to be an undesirable practice for banks specified in that notice or for all banks,

and a bank which, after the expiry of a period of 21 days as from the date of a notice received by it by virtue of paragraph (a) or applicable to it in terms of paragraph (b), employs a practice which constitutes an undesirable practice for it by virtue of such a notice, shall be guilty of an offence.

 

(3) A bank shall, upon receipt from the Authority of a written request to that effect, discontinue the publication or issue of any advertisement, brochure, prospectus or similar document, specified in the request, which contains information which is not a correct statement of fact, or the publication or issue of which is, in the opinion of the Authority, not in the public interest.

 

 


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