Dealings in gold and foreign currency
Open ↗3.—(1) Except with the permission of the Authority, no person, other than an authorised dealer, shall in Singapore buy or borrow any gold or foreign currency from, or sell or lend any gold or foreign currency to, any person other than an authorised dealer.
(2) Except with the permission of the Authority, no person resident in the scheduled territories, other than an authorised dealer, shall in Singapore do any act which involves, is in association with or is preparatory to buying or borrowing any gold or foreign currency from, or selling or lending any gold or foreign currency to, any person outside Singapore.
(3) Where a person buys or borrows any gold or foreign currency in Singapore or, being a person resident in the scheduled territories, does any act which involves, is in association with or is preparatory to the buying or borrowing of gold or foreign currency outside Singapore, he shall comply with such conditions as to the use to which it may be put or the period for which it may be retained as may from time to time be notified to him by the Authority.
Surrender of gold and foreign currency
Open ↗4.—(1) Every person in Singapore who is entitled to sell, or to procure the sale of, any gold, or any foreign currency to which this section applies, and is not an authorised dealer, shall offer it, or cause it to be offered, for sale to an authorised dealer, unless the Authority consents to his retention and use thereof or he disposes thereof to any other person with the permission of the Authority.
(2) The foreign currency to which this section applies is such foreign currency (referred to in this Act as specified currency) as may from time to time be specified by order of the Authority.
(3) If a person who has obtained the consent of the Authority to his retention and use of any gold or specified currency, and has stated in an application for the consent that he requires it for a particular purpose, no longer requires the gold or currency for that purpose, subsection (1) shall thereupon apply to him in relation to that gold or currency as if the Authority had revoked its consent to his retention and use thereof.
(4) A person who acquires any gold or specified currency from an authorised dealer shall be treated for the purposes of this section as if —(a)
the Authority had consented to the retention and use by him of that gold or currency (subject, however, to any conditions notified to him in accordance with section 3(3)); and
(b)
any statement made by him in an application for that gold or currency as to the purpose for which he requires it had been made by him in an application for the Authority’s consent to his retention and use thereof.
(5) Where a person has become bound under this section to offer or cause to be offered any gold or specified currency for sale to an authorised dealer, he shall not be deemed to comply with that obligation by any offer made or caused to be made by him, if the offer is an offer to sell at a price exceeding that authorised by the Authority, or without payment of any usual and proper charges of the authorised dealer, or otherwise on any unusual terms.
(6) Where a person has become bound under this section to offer or cause to be offered any gold or specified currency for sale to an authorised dealer and has not complied with that obligation, the Authority may direct that that gold or currency shall vest in the Authority, and it shall vest in the Authority accordingly free from any mortgage, pledge or charge.
(7) The Authority may deal with any gold or specified currency vested in the Authority under subsection (6) as it thinks fit, but the Authority shall pay to the person who would but for the direction be entitled to the gold or currency such sum as he would have received therefor if he had sold it to an authorised dealer in pursuance of an offer made under this section at the time when the vesting occurred.
(8) In any proceedings in respect of a failure to comply with this section, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is shown, that the gold or currency in question has not been offered for sale to an authorised dealer.
Bailees of gold and foreign currency
Open ↗5.—(1) Every person in Singapore by whom or to whose order (whether directly or indirectly) any gold or any specified currency in the form of notes is held in Singapore but who is not entitled to sell it or procure its sale shall notify the Authority in writing that he so holds that gold or currency.
(2) The Authority may direct any person in Singapore by whom or to whose order (whether directly or indirectly) any gold or any specified currency in the form of notes is held in Singapore, whether or not he is entitled to sell it or procure its sale, to cause that gold or currency to be kept at all times in the custody of such banker as may be specified in the direction.
Travellers’ cheques, etc.
Open ↗6.—(1) This section shall apply to any document of a kind intended to enable the person to whom the document is issued to obtain foreign currency from some other person on the credit of the person issuing it, and in particular to any traveller’s cheque or other draft or letter of credit so intended.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, the person issuing a document to which this section applies, and the person to whom it is issued, shall be deemed respectively to sell and buy foreign currency, and where foreign currency is obtained by means of the document, to sell and buy that foreign currency.
(3) Any such document not expressed in terms of sterling or local currency shall, if it is of a kind intended to enable the person to whom it is issued to obtain any specified currency, be treated also for the purposes of this Act as itself being a specified currency.
(4) Every person in Singapore who holds or to whose order there is held any document to which this section applies, being a document expressed in terms of sterling or local currency, shall encash it or cause it to be encashed in the scheduled territories with the person issuing it or with a banker, unless the Authority consents to his retention and use thereof and, where in his application for that consent he has stated that he requires it for a particular purpose, unless also he still requires it for that purpose.
(5) A person who acquires any document to which subsection (4) applies from an authorised dealer shall be treated for the purposes of that subsection as if —(a)
the Authority had consented to the retention and use by him of that document (subject, however, to any conditions notified to him in accordance with section 3(3)); and
(b)
any statement made by him in an application for that document as to the purpose for which he requires it had been made by him in an application for the Authority’s consent to his retention and use thereof.
Source: Singapore Statutes Online (Attorney-General's Chambers), © Government of Singapore.
