Terms and Conditions - Child Development Accounts (Baby Bonus)

Terms and Conditions Governing OCBC Child Development Accounts (Baby Bonus)

These Terms and Conditions shall govern your OCBC Child Development Account (“CDA”), OCBC Child Development Account Extra (“CDA Extra”) and/or OCBC Child Development Account Time Deposit Account (“CDA Time Deposit Account”) with OCBC Bank (collectively the “Terms and Conditions”).

1           DEFINITIONS

In these Terms and Conditions, except to the extent that the context requires otherwise, the following terms shall have the following respective meanings:-

(a)        “Act” means the Child Development Co-Savings Act 2001 (Chapter 38A) and includes all amendments, variations, modifications and/or supplements made thereto from time to time.

(b)         “Approved Expenses” mean such expenses for which withdrawals from the CDA are permitted by the Government.

(c)         “approved person” means a person approved by the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports as an approved person under the Child Development Account Legislation.

(d)     “CDA Account” means any OCBC Child Development Account, OCBC Child   Development Account Extra, OCBC Child Development Account Time Deposit Account or any other account opened in the Trustee’s Name (with the relevant Member’s name entered in the title of such account) pursuant to the Child Development Co-Savings Scheme.

(e)      “Child Development Credit” means a one time cash credit deposited into any OCBC Child Development Account or OCBC Child Development Account Extra by the Government of Singapore

(f)          “Child Development Account Legislation” means the Act, the Child Development Co-Savings Regulations and such subsidiary legislation or regulations as may from time to time be enacted.

(g)         “Child Development Co-Savings Scheme” means the scheme established under the Child Development Co-Savings Regulations for the purposes of Part II of the Act.

(h)         “Electronic Services” includes OCBC Phone Banking Service, OCBC ATM Service and OCBC Internet Banking Service and any other services or facilities offered via electronic means in or outside Singapore.

(i)          “Member” means a member of the Child Development Co-Savings Scheme or such person whom the Government determines is entitled to have a CDA.

(j)          “The Government” shall include the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports or such other ministry or government body in charge of administering the Child Development Co-Savings Scheme.

2.          TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF GENERAL APPLICATION

2.1        Opening of CDA Account

2.1.1      You may open the CDA Account for the benefit of the Member if you:-

(a)         are a parent or legal guardian of a Member or such person approved by the Minister as an approved person;

(b)         have attained the age of 21 years;

(c)         are not a bankrupt; and

(d)         have the necessary documents as prescribed by the Child Development Account Legislation.

2.1.2      The CDA Account shall be opened in your name or the name of the approved person and you or that the approved person shall be known as the “Trustee”.

2.1.3      The Member’s name shall be entered in the title of the CDA Account.

2.1.4      The Trustee shall be deemed to be the Customer.

2.1.5      At any one time, there will only be one Trustee and one Member per CDA Account.  A Member can only have one CDA. Account

2.2.        Change of Trustee

2.2.1     We shall upon receipt of instructions from the Government, replace the existing Trustee of the CDA Account (the “Existing Trustee”) with another person as the Government may direct (the “New Trustee”).

2.2.2     Without prejudice to the generality of clause 2.2.1 above, in the event that the Government notifies us of the death of the Existing Trustee, we shall upon receiving instructions form the Government, appoint the New Trustee to operate the CDA Account in replacement of the Existing Trustee.  For the avoidance of doubt, the personal representatives, successors and/or permitted assigns of the Existing Trustee shall not be permitted to operate the CDA Account.

2.2.3     Upon the appointment of a New Trustee, we shall if requested by the New Trustee, furnish him with copies of the Statement of Account which we had previously sent to the Existing Trustee upon payment by the New Trustee of the prescribed fee.

2.3         Death of Member

             We will close all CDA Accounts and pay the balance standing to the credit of any CDA Account together with any interest payable to the Government or any person nominated by the Government upon receiving notification of a Member’s death from the Government.  Such payment shall be treated as full and final discharge of our obligations.

2.4         Consent for Disclosure to MCYS

             Without prejudice to any other provisions in these Terms and Conditions as well as the OCBC Terms and Conditions Governing Deposit Accounts, you hereby expressly authorise us to transfer any information relating to the Customer, and any customer information (as defined in the Banking Act Chapter 19) in relation to any CDA Account to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.

2.5        Application of Other Terms

        2.5.1    Where Products are made available to you by the Bank on separate terms, those terms shall be read in conjunction with these Terms and Conditions. In the event of any conflict, the specific terms applicable to the relevant Products shall prevail.

             2.5.2    These Terms and Conditions shall be read in conjunction with the OCBC Terms and Conditions Governing Deposit Accounts. In the event of any conflict, these Terms and Conditions shall prevail over the OCBC Terms and Conditions Governing Deposit Accounts.

 2.6        Third Party Rights

A person who is not a party to any agreement governed by these Terms and Conditions has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 2001 to enforce any of these Terms and Conditions.

2.7         Applicable Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms and Conditions shall be governed and construed in all respects in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Singapore but in enforcing these Terms and Conditions the Bank is at liberty to initiate and take actions or proceedings or otherwise against the Customer in the Republic of Singapore or elsewhere as the Bank may deem fit, and the Customer hereby agrees that where any actions or proceedings are initiated and taken in the Republic of Singapore, the Customer shall submit to the jurisdiction of the Courts of the Republic of Singapore in all matters connected with the Customer’s obligations and liabilities under or arising out of these Terms and Conditions.

3.          TERMS APPLICABLE TO CDA AND CDA EXTRA

3.1         Co-Payments by the Government

            The Government shall make co-payments into the CDA or CDA Extra of such amounts as are provided under the Child Development Co-Savings Scheme.  We shall not be liable for any failure on the part of the Government to make the co-payments.  Upon receiving instructions from the Government (and without enquiring as to the reasons for them), we shall debit from the CDA or CDA Extra all or part of the co-payments made into the CDA or CDA Extra by the Government and pay the same to the Government or such person as the Government may direct.  We shall not be liable for any loss, damage or expenses suffered or incurred by the Trustee or the Member as a result of any action taken by us in accordance with the instructions from the Government or any failure by us to take action if we did not receive the necessary instructions from the Government.

3.1.1     Child Development Credits

You are eligible to receive the Child Development Credit if you have children who are Singapore citizens and who are born between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2011. The Child Development Credit will be deposited into the CDA Account. The Child Development Credit is not eligible for matching contribution under the Child Development Co-Savings Scheme. We shall not be liable nor responsible for any non-receipt or failure of any Child Development Credit into your CDA Account for any reason whatsoever. We shall not be liable for any loss, damage or expenses suffered or incurred by the Trustee or the Member as a result of any actions taken by us in relation to the Child Development Credit, including but not limited to, complying with instructions from the Singapore Government or any failure by us to not take action if we did not receive the necessary instructions from the Singapore Government.

3.2         Operation of CDA and CDA Extra

3.2.1     You may arrange for standing orders via GIRO for transfer of funds to be deposited into the CDA or CDA Extra subject to the terms and conditions of the standing order applications.  You may also arrange for funds to be deposited into the CDA or CDA Extra through such other means as we may permit form time to time.

3.2.2     You shall operate the CDA or CDA Extra using such Electronic Services as we may stipulate subject to our terms and conditions.  Withdrawals in person over the counter or by any other methods apart from the stipulated Electronic Services are not permitted.  We are not bound to honour any withdrawal request if there are insufficient funds in the CDA or CDA Extra.

3.2.3     Withdrawals from the CDA or CDA Extra may only be made for the payment of Approved Expenses.  We will not honour any withdrawal request from the CDA or CDA Extra if we believe that the withdrawal is for a purpose other than the payment of Approved Expenses. You hereby consent to OCBC Bank disclosing all information in relation to your OCBC CDA or CDA Extra to any third party which OCBC Bank deems fit for purposes of GIRO deduction. However, we will not be liable if withdrawals from the CDA or CDA Extra are utilized other than for payment of Approved Expenses.

3.2.4     We reserve the right at any time to suspend operations of the CDA or CDA Extra (including, inter alia, terminating arrangements for withdrawals from the CDA or CDA Extra via GIRO) as long as we deem fit if:

                        (a)        we receive instructions from the Government to do so; or

(b)        as a result of force majeure, any calamity or conditions, industrial action, power failure, computer breakdown or sabotage, or any reason whatsoever, our customers’ records, accounts or services are unavailable or access to such records, accounts or services is hindered.

3.3         Closure of CDA or CDA Extra

3.3.1     The CDA or CDA Extra shall remain open until we receive instructions from the Government to close the CDA or CDA Extra.

3.3.2     We shall upon the instructions of the Government, close the CDA or CDA Extra and transfer the balance standing to the credit of the CDA or CDA Extra together with any interest payable thereon to a designated account opened in the name of the Ministry of Education or such other bank account as the Government may direct.  Such payment shall be treated as a full and final discharge of our obligations.

 3.4       CDA Extra

3.4.1     The provisions in this clause 3.4 shall apply only in relation to CDA Extra.

3.4.2     We shall at our sole and absolute discretion set a minimum amount which must be deposited into the CDA Extra on a monthly basis (the “Minimum Monthly Deposit”).The Minimum Monthly Deposit shall be deposited into the CDA Extra by the last working day of the month.

3.4.3     The Minimum Monthly Deposit can be deposited into the CDA Extra either via GIRO from a third party bank, debit from an OCBC Account or in any other manner as may be allowed by the Bank in its sole and absolute discretion.

3.4.4     We shall have the sole and absolute discretion to convert the CDA Extra into a CDA without prior notice to you if you fail to deposit the Minimum Monthly Deposit into the CDA Extra for 3 consecutive months.

3.4.5     In the event that your CDA Extra is converted to a CDA in accordance with Clause 3.4.4 above, we will only terminate any monthly GIRO contribution from a third party bank or Instructions to debit from an OCBC Account after our receipt of your written instructions.

4.          TERMS APPLICABLE TO CDA TIME DEPOSIT ACCOUNT

(a)        The CDA Time Deposit Account may only be opened by a Customer with an existing CDA or CDA Extra.

(b)        We may in our sole and absolute discretion set a minimum amount to be placed as Time Deposits in the CDA Time Deposit Account. 

(c)        All funds to be placed as Time Deposits in the CDA Time Deposit Account must be drawn from a CDA or a CDA Extra. Upon the maturity or early termination due to any reason whatsoever, of the Time Deposits, all proceeds shall be transferred to the relevant CDA or CDA Extra.

(d)         Termination of a CDA or CDA Extra will result in the termination of the corresponding Time Deposit in the CDA Time Deposit Account.