Article 971A of the Civil Code (Cap. 16) currently allows a child who has attained the age of sixteen years to deposit money in a bank account opened by the child in his or her own name. The Ministry for Finance and Employment and Ministry for Justice would like to propose an amendment to Article 971A of the Civil Code in order to allow a child who has attained the age of sixteen years to also place funds in an account opened by the child in his or her own name with a payment institution or an electronic money institution licensed in terms of the Financial Institutions Act (Cap. 376) or otherwise holding an equivalent authorisation in another Member State or EEA State in terms of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 (the PSDII) or Directive 2009/110/EC (the EMDII), as the case may be.
This proposal is being made after having considered the following:
1. A child who has attained the age of sixteen years is already allowed to open and operate a bank account and therefore should have the legal capacity to open and operate an account with a payment institution or an electronic money institution to effect transactions which may already be effected through a bank account;
2. The safeguards provided by the PSDII, the EMDII and the Financial Institutions Act (Safeguarding of Funds) Regulations (S.L. 376.04); and
3. This amendment would place payment institutions and electronic money institutions at par with credit institutions in so far as the offering of accounts through which payment transactions can be effected is concerned.
2.Consultation questions
Stakeholders are invited to submit any comments they may have on the proposed legislative amendments.
3. Documents
The draft legislation can be downloaded from the URL below:-
