Finance Act 1997

108 Payment of dividends on government stock. U.K.

(1) For section 2 of the M1 National Debt (Stockholders Relief) Act 1892 (date for striking balance for a dividend on government stock) there shall be substituted the following section—

“2 Effect of, and time for, striking balance.

(1) Any person who, at the time of the balance being struck for a dividend on stock, is inscribed as a stockholder shall, as between himself and any transferee of the stock, be entitled to the then current half-year’s or quarter’s dividend.

(2) Subject to subsections (3) and (4) below, the Bank may—

(a) strike the balance for a dividend on stock before the day on which the dividend is payable, and

(b) strike the balances for dividends on stock at times such that the interval between—

(i) the time at which the balance for a dividend is struck, and

(ii) the day on which the dividend is payable,

is different in different cases.

(3) The balance for a dividend on any stock shall not be struck at different times for different holdings of that stock unless—

(a) the case is one where the use of different times for different holdings of the same stock is authorised by order made by the Treasury; and

(b) such requirements (if any) as may be imposed by an order so made are complied with in relation to the striking of that balance.

(4) The time at which the balance for a dividend on any stock is struck shall not fall before—

(a) the beginning of the tenth business day before the day on which the dividend is payable; or

(b) such later time (if any) as may be determined, in accordance with an order made by the Treasury, to be the earliest time at which that balance may be struck.

(5) In this section “business day” means any day other than—

(a) a Saturday or Sunday;

(b) Good Friday or Christmas Day;

(c) a day which, in any part of the United Kingdom, is a bank holiday under the M2 Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971;

(d) a day specified in an order under section 2(1) of that Act (days on which financial dealings are suspended) and declared by that order to be a non-business day for the purposes of this section; or

(e) a day appointed by Royal proclamation as a public fast or thanksgiving day.

(6) An order made by the Treasury for the purposes of subsection (3) or (4) above—

(a) shall be made by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament; and

(b) may make different provision for different cases and contain such exceptions and exclusions, and such incidental, supplemental, consequential and transitional provision, as the Treasury may think fit.”

(2) This section has effect in relation to dividends other than those for which the balance is struck on or before the day on which this Act is passed.

Marginal Citations

M1 1892 c. 39.

M2 1971 c. 80.