Requirements for financial holding company

(1) Where a local licensee or proposed local licensee is, or is about to become, a member of a related group in which– (a) one or more members, in addition to the local licensee or proposed local licensee, are limited in their activities to those permitted to a member of a financial group, and (b) one or more members are not limited in their activities to those permitted to a member of a financial group, any person who controls the local licensee or proposed local licensee shall be a financial holding company described in sub- section (2) or (3). (2) For the purposes of sub-section (1), in the circumstances where the person who controls, directly or indirectly, the related group referred to in sub-section (1) is a holding body corporate, the financial holding company shall be another holding body corporate that is the immediate subsidiary of that first holding body corporate. (3) For the purposes of sub-section (1), in the circumstances where the person who controls, directly or indirectly, the related group referred to in sub-section (1) is an individual or unincorporated entity, the financial holding company shall be a 74 holding body corporate, the shares of which shall be directly held by that person. (4) Where, pursuant to this section, a person who controls a local licensee is required to be a financial holding company, and, at the time this section comes into force, the person who controls the local licensee is a holding body corporate referred to in sub- section (2) or an individual or unincorporated entity referred to in sub-section (3), that person shall, within a period of one year– (a) transfer to a financial holding company that is directly controlled by that person the shares that it holds in the local licensee and in any other member or members of the related group referred to in paragraph (1)(a) that are limited in their activities to those permitted to a member of a financial group; or (b) divest itself of its controlling interest in the (5) Where a financial holding company is required by this section, it shall apply to the Central Bank for a permit pursuant to section 33. (6) This section shall not apply where a person who controls a local licensee is itself a local licensee under this Act.