Companies Act 1967

80 Provision for securing that a company's solvency is maintained.

(1) If it appears to the appropriate authority that the business of an insurance company to which the principal Act applies is being so conducted that there is a risk of the company's becoming insolvent, that authority may impose on the company all or any of the following requirements, namely:—

(a) a requirement that the company shall not make investments of a specified class and shall, before the expiration of a specified period (or such longer period as the appropriate authority may allow), realise investments of that class held by it immediately before the requirement is imposed;

(b) a requirement that assets of the company to a value not less at any time than the amount of its domestic liabilities at that time shall be maintained in the United Kingdom;

(c) a requirement that assets of the company of a specified description, free from any mortgage or charge and to a value not less at any time than whichever is the greater of the following amounts, that is to say, the amount of a specified proportion of the domestic liabilities of the company, society or body at that time and £50,000, shall be maintained in the United Kingdom and that those assets, or, in the case of any of them to which there are documents of title, those documents, shall be held in the custody of a person approved for the purposes of this section by the appropriate authority ;

(d) a requirement that the company shall take all such steps as are requisite to secure that the aggregate of the premiums to be received by it in consideration of the undertaking by it, during a specified period beginning not earlier than twenty-eight clear days after the requirement is imposed, of liabilities in the course of carrying on business of a specified class (being one of the classes relevant for the purposes of this Part of this Act) shall not exceed a specified amount;

(e) a requirement that the company shall, at specified times or intervals, furnish to the appropriate authority information about specified matters, being, if that authority so require, information verified in a specified manner.

(2) Subsections (2) and (3) of section 65 of this Act shall have effect for the purposes of this section subject to the modifications that, in the said subsection (2), for the reference to paragraph (b) or (c) of section 65(1), there shall be substituted a reference to paragraph (b) or (c) of subsection (1) of this section, and, for the reference to the Board of Trade, there shall be substituted a reference to the appropriate authority, and, in the said subsection (3), for the reference to paragraph (c) of section 65(1), there shall be substituted a reference to paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this section ; and section 66 of this Act shall have effect where a requirement is imposed by virtue of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) above as it does where a requirement is imposed by virtue of paragraph (c) of section 65(1) of this Act, subject to the modifications that, for any reference to paragraph (c) of the said section 65(1), there shall be substituted a reference to paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this section, and for the reference to the Board of Trade, there shall be substituted a reference to the appropriate authority.

(3) In relation to a company which carries on in Great Britain no insurance business other than industrial assurance business, paragraph (d) of subsection (1) above shall have effect with the substitution, for the words " business of a specified class (being one of the classes relevant for the purposes of this Part of this Act) " , of the words " industrial assurance business ".

(4) A requirement imposed under this section may be rescinded by the appropriate authority if it appears to it that it is no longer necessary for the requirement to continue in force.

(5) When the appropriate authority imposes under subsection (1)(c) of this section a requirement on a company or rescinds a requirement so imposed, it shall forthwith serve—

(a) except where the requirement is one imposed on a registered society (other than one registered in Northern Ireland), on the registrar of companies ;

(b) in the said excepted case, on the appropriate registrar as defined by section 73(1) of the [1965 c. 12.] Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965;

written notice stating that fact and, in the case of a notice of the imposition of a requirement, setting out the terms of the requirement and, in the case of a notice of the rescission of a requirement, identifying the requirement.

(6) Subsections (7) and (8) of section 65 of this Act shall have effect for the purposes of this section subject to the modification that, for any reference to a notice served in pursuance of subsection (6) of that section, there shall be substituted a reference to a notice served in pursuance of the last foregoing subsection.

(7) In this section, " appropriate authority ", in relation to a company, means—

(a) except in the case of a company which carries on in Great Britain no insurance business other than industrial assurance business, the Board of Trade ; and

(b) in the said excepted case, the Industrial Assurance Commissioner;

and " domestic liabilities " shall be construed in accordance with section 65(9) of this Act.