Companies Act 1948

197 Particulars in accounts of loans to officers, &c.

(1) The accounts which, in pursuance of this Act, are to be laid before every company in general meeting shall, subject to the provisions of this section, contain particulars showing—

(a) the amount of any loans made during the company's financial year to—

(i) any officer of the company; or

(ii) any person who, after the making of the loan, became during that year an officer of the company;

by the company or a subsidiary thereof or by any other person under a guarantee from or on a security provided by the company or a subsidiary thereof (including any such loans -which were repaid during that year); and

(b) the amount of any loans made in manner aforesaid to any such officer or person as aforesaid at any time before the company's financial year and outstanding at the expiration thereof.

(2) The foregoing subsection shall not require the inclusion in accounts of particulars of—

(a) a loan made in the ordinary course of its business by the company or a subsidiary thereof, where the ordinary business of the company or, as the case may be, the subsidiary, includes the lending of money; or

(b) a loan made by the company or a subsidiary thereof to an employee of the company or subsidiary, as the case may be, if the loan does not exceed two thousand pounds and is certified by the directors of the company or subsidiary, as the case may be, to have been made in accordance with any practice adopted or about to be adopted by the company or subsidiary with respect to loans to its employees;

not being, in either case, a loan made by the company under a guarantee from or on a security provided by a subsidiary thereof or a loan made by a subsidiary of the company under a guarantee from or on a security provided by the company or any other subsidiary thereof.

(3) If in the case of any such accounts as aforesaid the requirements of this section are not complied with, it shall be the duty of the auditors of the company by whom the accounts are examined to include in their report on the balance sheet of the company, so far as they are reasonably able to do so, a statement giving the required particulars.

(4) References in this section to a subsidiary shall be taken as referring to a subsidiary at the end of the company's financial year (whether or not a subsidiary at the date of the loan).