120. General provisions as to winding up
Feedback & supportLast amended by an amending law of 2022. 6 amendments in all.
This section is to be read together with section 63 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2022.
Despite any written law or rule of law, a liquidator appointed in respect of a licensed insurer carrying on insurance business in Singapore must, when winding up the licensed insurer —
licensed insurer
“licensed insurer” means an insurer which is for the time being licensed under section 11;
endeavour, as far as reasonably practicable, to sell or transfer the whole or part of the insurance business of the licensed insurer to any other insurer licensed to carry on the relevant class or classes of business;
continue to carry on the insurance business of the licensed insurer until the whole insurance business is transferred to another insurer licensed to carry on the relevant class or classes of business, unless directed by the Court; and
have all necessary powers to carry out the functions set out in paragraphs (a) and (b).
The Authority may at any time appoint one or more actuaries to perform an independent assessment of, and provide a report on, the proposed transfer of the insurance business of a company by a liquidator pursuant to subsection (2).
The remuneration and expenses of any actuary appointed under subsection (3) must be paid by the licensed insurer.
actuary
“actuary” means a Fellow of any prescribed professional body or institute;
The Authority must serve a copy of any report provided under subsection (3) on the liquidator.
The Authority must be a party to any proceedings under the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 relating to the winding up of the affairs of an insurer licensed under this Act or an insurance broker registered under this Act, and the liquidator in such a winding up must give the Authority such information as it may from time to time require about the affairs of the insurer or insurance broker, as the case may be.
insurance broker
“insurance broker” means —(a)a person who is or has been carrying on the business of —(i)receiving proposals for, or issuing, policies in Singapore;(ii)collecting or receiving premiums on policies in Singapore; or(iii)arranging contracts of insurance in Singapore, as an agent for insureds or intending insureds in respect of —(iv)policies relating to general business and long‑term accident and health policies, other than policies relating to reinsurance business; or(v)reinsurance of liabilities under policies relating to life business or general business; or(b)a person who acts for, or by arrangement with, a person referred to in paragraph (a) in the performance of all or any of the activities carried out by the person referred to in paragraph (a),but does not include such persons or class of persons as the Authority may prescribe;
For the purposes of any proceedings under the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 for the winding up of the affairs of such an insurer by the Court, the contingent and prospective liabilities of the insurer in respect of policies are, in determining whether it is unable to pay its debts, to be estimated in accordance with such rules as may be prescribed.
If the Authority submits to the Rules Committee, established under any written law relating to the courts, proposals for making special provision under section 448 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 in relation to insurers licensed under this Act or any description of such insurers, the Rules Committee may by rules made under that section give effect to the proposals, either as submitted or subject to such modifications as the Rules Committee may think fit.
Proposals under subsection (8), and rules made by virtue thereof, may provide for modifying or excluding, in relation to insurers so licensed, provisions of Parts 8 and 9 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 requiring the holding of meetings or otherwise relating to the procedure in a winding up.
In the winding up of the affairs of a licensed insurer, section 218(2) to (8) of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 does not apply to the valuation of liabilities in respect of policies; but in any such winding up, whether the insurer is insolvent or not, those liabilities are to be estimated in accordance with the rules prescribed under subsection (7) and, as regards matters not fixed by the rules, on a basis approved by the Court.
In a members’ voluntary winding up, the basis to be adopted as regards matters not fixed by the rules may be approved by the Authority instead of by the Court.
References in this section to a licensed insurer extend also to a Singapore insurer which has ceased to be so licensed but remains under any liability in respect of Singapore policies or offshore policies.
Singapore insurer
“Singapore insurer” means a person who is or has been carrying on insurance business in Singapore.(6) A person is not to be treated as carrying on insurance business, or any class of insurance business, in Singapore if, apart from the collection or receipt of premiums in Singapore, the person —(a)carries out all activities in relation to the person’s reinsurance business outside Singapore; and(b)does not have any commercial or physical presence in Singapore for the purpose of carrying on such reinsurance business.(7) The operation, otherwise than for profit, of a scheme or arrangement relating to service in particular offices or employments, and having for its object or one of its objects to make provision in respect of persons serving therein against future retirement or partial retirement, or against future termination of service through death or disability, or against similar matters, is not to be treated for the purposes of this Act as carrying on the business of insurance.(8) For the purposes of this Act, no society registered under the Societies Act 1966 or organisation registered under the Mutual Benefit Organisations Act 1960 is deemed to be an insurer, and no agent for such a society or organisation is as such deemed to be an insurance agent; nor do references in this Act to a policy or contract of insurance apply to any policy or contract whereby an insurance is effected with such a society or organisation.(9) For the purposes of this Act —(a)any reference to the last statutory balance sheet or to the last statutory valuation is to be construed as referring to that last prepared or made and not superseded by the arrival of the date as at which another is to be prepared or made; and(b)any reference to there being shown in a statutory balance sheet or on a statutory valuation a surplus of assets over liabilities of an insurance fund is to be construed accordingly by reference to the form of balance sheet or valuation balance sheet as the Authority may prescribe or specify in directions, and to the rules to be followed under this Act and any such directions in preparing it.(10) The definitions set out in the First Schedule have effect for the construction of references in this Act to policies of insurance, policy owners and policy moneys.[2 For the purposes of this Act, insurance business is divided into 2 classes —(a)life business, which means all insurance business concerned with life policies, long-term accident and health policies, or both; and(b)general business, that is to say, all insurance business which is not life business, including the effecting and carrying out by any person, not being a person licensed, approved, designated or otherwise regulated under the Monetary Authority of Singapore Act 1970, Banking Act 1970, Finance Companies Act 1967 or Securities and Futures Act 2001; of contracts for fidelity bonds, performance bonds, administration bonds, bail bonds or customs bonds or similar contracts of guarantee, being contracts effected by way of business (and not merely incidental to some other business carried on by the person effecting them) in return for the payment of one or more premiums. For the purposes of this Act, the reinsurance of liabilities under insurance policies by a licensed insurer or an authorised reinsurer is treated as insurance business of the class and type to which the nature of the risk assumed or liabilities undertaken by that licensed insurer or authorised reinsurer relates. Despite subsections (1) and (2), if the Authority is satisfied that any part of an insurer’s business which belongs to a particular class or type of insurance business ought in the insurer’s case to be treated as belonging to another class or type, the Authority may direct that it is to be so treated for the purposes of this Act. For the purposes of this Act, references to carrying on insurance business include the carrying it on through an agent. For the purposes of this Act and subject to subsection (6),
In this section —
“Court” means the General Division of the High Court;
“liquidator” includes a provisional liquidator.[49FO