Penalties

21Penalties: non-compliance by account provider

(1)

A penalty may be imposed on an account provider if the account provider—

(a)

offers or operates, as a purported Saving Gateway account, an account which does not comply with a requirement imposed by or under section 4;

(b)

fails to pay a maturity payment within the period specified in regulations under section 8(4);

(c)

fails to pay a death payment within the period specified in regulations under section 4(2)(b);

(d)

allows an account holder to exceed the limit on payments into the account imposed by regulations under section 4(4);

(e)

fails to comply with a condition or requirement imposed by or under regulations under section 5;

(f)

opens a purported Saving Gateway account for a person where the application for the account does not include a declaration under section 6(2)(b) or does not comply with section 6(2)(c);

(g)

fails to open an account for a person in accordance with section 6(3);

(h)

opens an account for a person where regulations under section 6(4) require the account provider to refuse to open an account;

(i)

fails to comply with a requirement imposed by regulations under section 7 or 9.

(2)

The penalty which may be imposed under subsection (1) on the account provider is a penalty not exceeding—

(a)

£300, or

(b)

£1 in respect of each account affected by the matter, or any of the matters, in respect of which a penalty is imposed,

whichever is the greater.

(3)

A supplementary penalty may be imposed under subsection (1) if an earlier penalty was based on an underestimate of the number of accounts affected.