Clause 17

The Authority may, if it appears to the Authority to be necessary or expedient in the public interest or the interest of the banking system, by notice in writing to banks give directions or impose requirements on or relating to the operations and activities of and standards to be maintained by banks.(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), any notice under that subsection may be given in respect of —

the revaluation of the assets of banks;

the maintenance of credit files of borrowers and the grading of loans;

the prohibition or control of the sale of commemorative coins or medals;

the deposit of specified securities with authorised depositaries;

the issue of Singapore dollar negotiable certificates of deposit;

prior notification to the Authority of changes in interest rates and minimum lending rates of banks;

restrictions on the granting of Singapore dollar credit facilities in whatever form or by whatever means to residents of Singapore where such facilities are to be used outside Singapore, or to non-residents;

the appointment of directors, chief and deputy chief executive officers and chief dealers of a bank;

the maintenance of a register of dealers of a bank;

the terms and conditions for the operation of a bank’s current and other accounts with the Authority;

the manner in which a bank conducts its dealings with its customers, the procedures for the reporting of transactions between a bank and its employees, and conflicts of interest involving a bank and its employees or involving a bank and its customers;

the maximum aggregate permissible percentage holdings by any class, category or description of persons of interests in shares of a bank incorporated in Singapore;

the limits for the total amount of foreign exchange transactions which a bank incorporated in Singapore may undertake and for this purpose the limits may be applied uniformly to all such banks or separate limits may be determined for any particular bank incorporated in Singapore or for two or more of such banks;

the opening of new branches of a bank and the change of location of any place of business of a bank;

the installation of automated teller machines by a bank;

the provision for and the writing-off of bad debts;

any audit of a Singapore branch of a bank by an internal auditor from its head office which is outside Singapore;

the forms, returns and submissions of statistics for the purposes of this Act.(3) Every bank shall comply with any direction given or requirement imposed by any notice under this section.(4) Every notice in writing issued by the Authority before the date of commencement of the Banking (Amendment) Act 1993 (other than a notice which was issued pursuant to another provision of this Act) shall, if such notice could have been issued under this section, be deemed to be so issued on that date.”.