Div 3Special Accounts.

Division 3.—Special Accounts. Commencement. 16. This Division shall commence on a date to be specified by the Treasurer by notice in the Gazette. Application of Division. 17. This Division shall not apply to a bank specified in Part II. of the First Schedule. Establishment of Special Accounts. 18.—(1.) On the day on which this Division commences, each bank shall establish with the Commonwealth Bank a Special Account for the purposes of this Division. (2.) On the day on which any bank (not being a bank carrying on business at the date of commencement of this Division) commences to carry on banking business in Australia, that bank shall establish with the Commonwealth Bank a Special Account for the purposes of this Division. Transfer of certain moneys to Special Accounts. 19. On the day on which this Division commences, there shall, by force of this section, be transferred to the Special Account of each bank established by it under this Division the amount then standing to the credit of that bank’s Special Account under the National Security (War-time Banking Control) Regulations. Lodgments in Special Accounts. 20.—(1.) Each bank shall, not later than the twenty-eighth day in each month, lodge in the Special Account established by it under this Division such amount (if any) as the Commonwealth Bank, by notice in writing, directs. (2.) The amount which any bank is so directed to lodge shall not be such that the amount to the credit of that bank’s Special Account after making the lodgment, exceeds the sum of— (a) the amount (if any) transferred to that bank’s Special Account under the last preceding section; and (b) the increase (if any) in that bank’s assets since the commencement of this Division. (3.) For the purposes of the last preceding sub-section, the increase in any bank’s assets since the commencement of this Division means the amount by which the average of its total assets in Australia as at the close of business on each Monday (or such other day as is prescribed) in the month preceding the month in which the lodgment is to be made exceeds the average of its total assets (if any) in Australia as at the close of business on each Monday in the last month before the commencement of this Division. (4.) If any bank fails to comply with the provisions of sub-section. (1.) of this section, it shall be guilty of an offence, and shall, on conviction, be liable, for each day during which the failure continues, to a fixed penalty at the rate of Eight pounds per centum per annum of the amount which it has failed to lodge as required by sub-section (1.) of this section. (5.) In this section, “month” means the period commencing on the first day of any month and ending on the last day of that month. Withdrawal from Special Accounts. 21.—(1.) Except with the consent of the Commonwealth Bank, a bank shall not be entitled to withdraw any sum from the Special Account established by it under this Division. (2.) The grant of consent by the Commonwealth Bank under the last preceding sub-section shall be in the discretion of the Commonwealth Bank, which may withhold consent or grant consent either unconditionally or subject to such conditions as the Commonwealth Bank determines. (3.) Where any consent under subjection (1.) of this section is granted subject to conditions, the bank to which the consent is granted shall comply with those conditions. Interest to be paid on Special Accounts. 22. The Commonwealth Bank shall pay interest, at half-yearly intervals, to each bank on the daily balance of that bank’s Special Account at a rate, not exceeding Seventeen shillings and sixpence per centum per annum, determined from time to time by the Commonwealth Bank with the approval of the Treasurer.