PART 2Copies of instruments and evidence of payment
Provision of copy of a paid instrument
3.—(1) A banker who has paid an instrument as a result of presentment under section 89A of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 must, if requested to do so by the creator of the instrument(1), provide a copy of the instrument to the creator before the end of the period of 10 working days beginning with the first working day after the banker received the request.
(2) The copy of the instrument must be a complete and accurate reproduction of both faces of the instrument.
(3) The copy of the instrument must be accompanied by the following information—
(a)confirmation of—
(i)the decision of the banker, or a person authorised to pay or refuse payment on the banker’s behalf, that the payment should be made and the date upon which that decision was made, or
(ii)the automated instruction for payment of the instrument, and the date of that automated instruction;
(b)the value of the payment made to the banker authorised to collect payment of the instrument;
(c)the sort code and account number of the account of the creator of the instrument;
(d)any reference number allocated by the banker authorised to collect payment of the instrument, used to identify the payment instrument.
(4) The copy and accompanying information must be provided—
(a)on paper, or
(b)in a format which—
(i)enables the creator of the instrument to store the copy and information in a way which is accessible for future reference for a period of time adequate for the purposes for which the copy and information is provided to the creator; and
(ii)allows the unchanged reproduction of the copy and information.
(5) If the copy and accompanying information is provided in accordance with paragraph (4)(b) and the creator of the instrument requests that the copy and accompanying information be provided on paper, they must be provided on paper.
(6) The first copy of an instrument provided under paragraph (1) must be provided free of charge.
(7) If the creator of an instrument requests more than one copy of the instrument, or makes more than one request for a copy of the same instrument—
(a)the banker who paid the instrument may request that the creator pay a fee for the provision of the copies of the instrument other than the first copy, and
(b)if the banker makes such a request, until the creator has paid such fee the banker need not comply with the requirement in paragraph (1) in relation to copies other than the first copy.
(8) In paragraph (7), the references to a fee are to a fee which reasonably corresponds to the banker’s costs of providing the copies of the instrument and accompanying information other than the first copy.
Copy of instrument as evidence of payment
4. A copy of an instrument and the accompanying information provided in accordance with regulation 3 is evidence of receipt by the payee named in the instrument of the sum payable by the instrument.
Section 89D(3) of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 makes provision about the meaning of “creator of the instrument”.