(1)A registered society may invest any part of its funds in or upon any security authorised by its registered rules.
(2)A registered society may, unless its registered rules provide otherwise, invest any part of its funds—
(a)in or upon any relevant security of a relevant authority (see subsection (3));
(b)in the shares or on the security of—
(i)any other registered society,
(ii)a building society, or
(iii)a company registered under the Companies Acts or incorporated by Act of Parliament or by charter,
being a society or company with limited liability;
(c)in or upon any other security in which trustees are for the time being authorised by law to invest (for which purpose sections 1 to 6 of the Trustee Investments Act 1961 apply as if the society were a trustee and its funds were trust property).
(3)In this section—
“building society” has the same meaning as in the Building Societies Act 1986;
“relevant authority” means—
a billing authority or precepting authority, as defined in section 69 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992,
a fire and rescue authority in Wales constituted by a scheme under section 2 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 or a scheme to which section 4 of that Act applies,
a levying body within the meaning of section 74 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, or
a body as regards which section 75 of that Act applies;
“relevant security” means any mortgage, bond, debenture, debenture stock, corporation stock, annuity, rentcharge, rent or other security (not being securities payable to bearer) that is authorised by or under any Act.