(1)Every collecting society shall be under the like obligation to deposit and keep deposited the sum of twenty thousand pounds as an industrial assurance company, and section two of the Assurance Companies Act, 1909, as applied by this Act to industrial assurance companies, shall apply accordingly, subject in its application to collecting societies to the following modifications :—
(a)For references to the Board of Trade, there shall be substituted references to the Commissioner:,
(b)Subsection (3) shall not apply:
(c)In the case of a society registered and carrying on industrial assurance business at the passing of this Act, the deposit shall be made before the commencement of this Act; but in any particular case the Commissioner shall, if satisfied as to the financial position of the society at the time of the passing of this Act, postpone the time for making the deposit to some time within five years after the commencement of this Act, and shall, on the application of the society from time to time, further postpone the time for making the deposit if he is still satisfied as to the financial position of the society, but not for more than five years at any one time :
(d)In the case of a society commencing to carry on industrial assurance business after the passing of this Act, the deposit shall be made before the society commences to carry on such business:
(e)In the case of a society applying after the passing of this Act for registry under the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, or for the registry of amendments of its rules, if the proposed rules of the society or the proposed amendments are such as will enable the society to carry on industrial assurance business, the Commissioner shall not issue to the society an acknowledgment of registry of the society or of amendment of rules, as the case may be, until the deposit has been made:
(f)A collecting society shall not be required to make a deposit in respect of any business other than industrial assurance business, but, subject as aforesaid, subsection (4) of the said section shall apply.
(2)If a society feel aggrieved at a refusal of the Commissioner to allow further time for making a deposit under paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this section, the society may. with the leave of the court, appeal to the High Court or, in the case of a society registered in Scotland, to the Court of Session.
(3)If the Commissioner is satisfied that a collecting society has made default in complying with the provisions of this section, the Commissioner may award that the society be dissolved and its affairs wound up.
(4)This section, so far as it relates to a society commencing to carry on industrial assurance business or applying for registration or for registration of an amendment of rules enabling it to carry on industrial assurance business after the passing of this Act, shall come into operation on the passing of this Act.
(5)Where the rules of a collecting society (hereinafter in this subsection referred to as a subsidiary society), whether registered before or after the passing of this Act, provide that the management of that society shall be vested in the committee of management of some other friendly society (hereinafter in this subsection referred to as the principal society) which was registered before the fourth day of August, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, then—
(a)the principal society may make on behalf of the subsidiary society the deposit required to be made by this section and may apply any of its funds for that purpose, and in that case the interest on the deposit, or the securities in which the deposit is for the time being invested, shall be paid to the principal society and not to the subsidiary society ; or
(b)the principal society may guarantee the liabilities of the industrial assurance fund of the subsidiary society to the extent of twenty thousand pounds in such manner and subject to such amendment of rules as the Commissioner may require, and the principal society may amend its rules accordingly; and if the Commissioner is satisfied with such guarantee he may accept the guarantee in lieu of the deposit required by this section.
Where the principal society is a society with branches, the rules of the society may provide for the central body of the society borrowing from the branches and the branches lending to the central body funds required for making such a deposit as aforesaid.