New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PROPERTY AND STOCK AGENTS ACT 2002 - SECT 90

90 Interest earned on trust accounts to be paid to Statutory Interest Account

(1) Each authorised deposit-taking institution must--

(a) after the end of each named month, calculate interest on the daily balances of all money held during the month in trust accounts kept with the authorised deposit-taking institution (being trust accounts notified to the institution as trust accounts required by this Act) by applying to those balances the prescribed percentage of the trust account rate applicable to the institution for the purposes of this section, and

(b) before the end of the 7th business day of the next named month pay the amount of that interest to the Secretary for crediting to the Statutory Interest Account.

: Maximum penalty--100 penalty units.

(2) The Minister is required to determine from time to time for the purposes of this section, after consultation with the Treasurer, a trust account rate for each authorised deposit-taking institution. The rate may be a fixed or variable rate and is to be determined by reference to an interest rate that applies in the short term money market. The same rate may be determined for some or all authorised deposit-taking institutions.

(3) As soon as practicable after determining a trust account rate for an authorised deposit-taking institution, the Minister must inform the authorised deposit-taking institution of the rate by notice in writing and publish a notice of the rate in the Gazette.

(4) The
"prescribed percentage" for the purposes of this section is 60 per cent or such other percentage as the Minister may, from time to time, determine after consultation with the Treasurer and notify by order published in the Gazette. Different prescribed percentages may be determined in respect of different classes of trust account.

(5) An authorised deposit-taking institution must not deduct transaction or other charges, other than statutory charges (such as a tax), from the balances referred to in subsection (1) or from an amount of interest calculated under that subsection.

(6) The Secretary may, by proceedings brought in a court of competent jurisdiction, recover as a debt an amount due and payable to the Secretary under this section.

(7) This section does not apply to a trust account of a class of trust accounts prescribed by the regulations as exempt from this section.