FOOTNOTES:

[T] Sitting of December 2nd 1896. Parliamentary Documents No 29.

[PROPOSED LAW]

Additions to the laws of March 16th 1865 instituting a General, Savings Bank, and of March 30th 1879, codifying the postal legislation.

Article 1.—The Savings Bank is authorised to organise, with the assistance of the postal administration, a service of cheques and of clearing in current accounts in the interest of those depositors who shall satisfy certain conditions in virtue of the present law.

Art. 2.—This service shall have a distinct and separate administration to that of the Savings Service; the bookkeeping operations to which it gives rise shall be centralised at the Savings Bank in Brussels.

Art. 3.—All participation in this service by the opening of a current account shall be voluntary; withdrawal shall always be possible.

Art. 4.—Royal decrees shall determine:

1. The general conditions of admission and particularly the minimum of deposit which shall be required of every adherent and which shall remain non-withdrawable so long as his participation in the service shall continue; the carrying out of his withdrawal;

2. The conditions and the forms under which the Savings Bank shall receive deposits of third parties and payments on account of adherents, either directly or by the intermediary of the postal administration;

3. The rules according to which the adherents shall be able to dispose of the free balance of their account, by means of cheques and clearings; the conditions and the forms of the cheques given out; the arrangements made to prevent errors and frauds; the intervention of the postal administration in the payments or repayments effected on account of the adherents;

4. The rules which will permit the accounts to be kept from day to day and to enable the account holders to know the condition of affairs in a regular manner;

5. The formation of a reserve sufficient to assure the regularity of the operations;

6. The rate of interest which shall be given to the funds placed in the cheque and clearing service;

7. The constitution of a reserve destined to cover the eventual losses of this service;

8. The fees for collection which shall be charged to the adherents.

Transcriber's Notes:

Simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors were corrected.

Punctuation normalized.

Anachronistic and non-standard spellings retained as printed.

Added missing "Figure V." reference to top of page 57.