Clause 29

The persons who may petition under the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 174) for the winding up of the affairs of an insurer registered under this Act, or for the continuance of the winding up of the affairs of such an insurer subject to the supervision of the Court, shall include the Commissioner.

The Commissioner shall be a party to any proceedings under the Companies Ordinance relating to the winding up of the affairs of such an insurer, and the liquidator in such a winding up shall give him such information as he may from time to time require about the affairs of the insurer.

For the purposes of any proceedings under the Companies Ordinance 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 shall, in determining whether it is unable to pay its debts, be estimated in accordance with such rules as may be prescribed; and evidence that the insurer was insolvent at the close of the last accounting period for which statements of account have been lodged with the Commissioner under section 22 of this Act shall be evidence that the insurer continues unable to pay its debts.

If the Minister submits to the Rules Committee established under any written law relating to the courts, proposals for making special provision under section 328 of the Companies Ordinance in relation to insurers registered under this Act or any description of such insurers, the Committee may by rules made under that section give effect to the proposals, either as submitted or subject to such modifications as the Committee thinks fit.

Proposals under subsection (4) of this section, and rules made by virtue thereof, may provide for modifying or excluding, in relation to insurers so registered, provisions of Part VI of the Companies Ordinance requiring the holding of meetings or otherwise relating to the procedure in a winding up.

In the winding up of the affairs of an insurer registered under this Act, section 254 of the Companies Ordinance (which applies bankruptcy rules in the winding up of insolvent companies), shall 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 shall be estimated in accordance with any prescribed rules and, as regards matters not fixed by the rules, on a basis approved by the Court:Provided that in a member’s voluntary winding up the basis to be adopted as regards matters not fixed by the rules may be approved by the Commissioner instead of by the Court.

References in this section to an insurer registered under this Act shall extend also to a Singapore insurer which has ceased to be so registered but remains under any liability in respect of Singapore policies; and where the winding up of a Singapore insurer has commenced but has not been completed before the date of the coming into operation of this Act, subsections (4) and (5) of this section shall have effect for the purposes of that winding up as they have effect in the case of an insurer registered under this Act.