Terms and Conditions Governing Accounts
1.1 By having any account with us or by using any of our services, you agree to these standard terms, any supplementary terms that apply and any other terms which we may tell you about which apply to our products or services. These standard terms, together with the supplementary terms that apply, replace all previous standard terms and conditions which may have applied to your account and our services.
1.2 If there is any difference in the terms which apply to our specific products and services, our supplementary terms and our standard terms, the terms which apply to specific products or services will take priority, followed by the supplementary terms and lastly the standard terms.
2.1 In these standard terms, the following words have the following meanings.
2.2 In these standard terms the following also apply.
3.1 Requirements. For any account you open with us or service we provide to you, we may set limits on how much you need to have in your account when it is opened, credit balances, amounts on which we will pay interest and types of currencies that we may accept, as well as our charges, commission and usual interest rates and any other requirement we may tell you about. We may decide to change your account number if we have to do so in connection with our business, or if you change the constitution of your business. However, we will tell you before we do this.
3.2 Information. You must give us all documents, information and authorisation we reasonably need to open and maintain your account. This includes for the purposes of us meeting ‘know your customer’, anti-money-laundering and anti-financing-terrorism requirements and any other laws and regulations which we need or agree to keep to. You must tell us promptly, in writing, of any change in any documents, information or authorisation given to us, and give us supporting documents and evidence of any change.
3.3 Authorised signatories. You must give us your mandate for operating your account and tell us promptly, in writing, of any change in your mandate. If your account is operated by your authorised signatories (people you have given permission to operate the account), you must give us their names and specimen signatures and tell us promptly, in writing, if there is any change to them. We will tell you if we cannot accept any authorised signatory due to our policies or any law or regulation which we need to keep to or agree to keep to.
3.4 Changing the authorised signatories. We will act on any instruction which we in good faith believe has come from your authorised signatories we have in our records. This will apply until we have received notice from you, in writing, that there has been a change to your authorised signatories and we have had a reasonable time (at least seven business days from receiving your notice), to change our records, after which we will act on instructions from the new authorised signatories.
3.5 Account ’in trust’. If you open an account in your name ’in trust’ or ’as nominee’ or in some other similar role, or as a capital markets services licence holder (or the equivalent) holding segregated clients’ accounts, the following will apply.
3.6 Partnership account. If you open an account as a partnership, it is your responsibility to tell us promptly, in writing, about any change in the constitution of the partnership, for example, as a result of the death of any partner, being made bankrupt, retiring, or for any other reason. We may treat the remaining partners or the new partners (or both) as having full authority to manage your account as if there had been no change in the partnership. This applies unless we receive notice otherwise, in writing, from one of the remaining partners, the executors or legal personal representatives or trustees of any partner who has died, or the ‘trustee in bankruptcy’, liquidator or similar officer of any partner who has been made bankrupt or is insolvent
4.1 Payments into your account. You may pay money into your account in currencies we accept and in any way we accept or agree to. We may charge you for certain methods of paying in money at rates we will tell you about. We will only accept payments into your account made in foreign currencies on a business day. The date the money is received as payment into your account will depend on current market practice or as we decide in line with our normal banking practice.
4.2 Receiving funds. If payment into your account is made by any method which needs clearing and settlement (for example, cheques), or through domestic or international transfer of funds, we do not have to credit your account before we actually receive the funds. If we credit your account before receiving the funds, this will be on the condition that we receive the funds, and we will deduct the money from your account if we do not receive the funds.
4.3 Fixed or time deposits. For money you have put into a ‘fixed’ or ‘time’ deposit which is not set up to automatically renew, you need to tell us what to do with the money on or before the maturity date. (If you make, for example, a three-month fixed deposit, the maturity date would be three months from when you make the deposit.) If we do not hear from you, we may put your money, and any interest it has earned, back on deposit (redeposit it) for the same term as the original fixed or time deposit, using the interest rate which applies to your deposit at the time (or any other rate as we may decide). For fixed or time deposits which are set up to renew automatically, we will automatically redeposit the amount, and any interest it has earned, when it reaches the maturity date. This will be redeposited for the same term and at the interest rate which applies to your deposit at the time (or any other rate as we may decide), unless you tell us otherwise at least two business days before the maturity date.
4.4 Withdrawals.
You agree to the following.
4.5 Transferring funds. We may accept an instruction to transfer funds between your account and any other account belonging to you or any other person which is maintained with us or any other financial institution if we have the necessary arrangements in place. We will try to process your request to transfer funds on the day we receive your instruction or as soon as we can on the next business day or within the time provided in the supplementary terms. You are responsible for making sure you give us the correct information (including details of the person you want to transfer the funds to) so that the transfer is successful. We do not have to check any information you give us in your instruction. We may set limits on transferring funds (for example, on the amount to be transferred or on how often you use the service).
4.6 Place of payments. We will only pay money which you have in your account from our member where you hold your account or from any of that member’s branches in the same jurisdiction where you hold your account. We will not pay it from any of our members or their branches in any other jurisdiction.
5.1 Interest payments. We will pay interest on the daily cleared and available credit balances of the funds in your interest earning account or accounts. This will be at the current interest rate that applies to the account at that time or at a rate you and we agree. We will not pay you interest on any unclaimed balance in a closed or suspended account or an account which we have listed as dormant. We may consider an account to be dormant if we consider that there has been no transaction made by you or no activity on the account has been carried out for a certain period of time. If you close an account that we have agreed to pay interest on, we will pay interest up to (but not including) the date you closed the account.
5.2 Charges, fees, costs, and so on. You must pay all fees, charges (including foreign-exchange commission or charges), costs, expenses and commissions in relation to your account and our services at the rates which apply at that time or as you and we agree. If, in the case of electronic payments, if it is not clear who should pay the charges, you will pay our charges and whoever receives the payment will have to pay the agent bank’s charges
6.1 Account statements. In line with our normal banking practice, we will send you account statements through the post or our electronic services or by any other method we have agreed with you. You must tell us in writing if you do not receive an account statement within seven days of when you usually receive it. If you do not tell us, we will treat you as having received it. If you tell us about or we become aware of any incorrect or missing entry, information or amount in the account statement, we will correct the error and tell you promptly.
7.1 Care and skill. When providing you with any service in relation to your account, we will act with reasonable care and skill in line with the standards and practices of the banking industry and this agreement. We will decide the date that a transaction is recognised in line with the standards and practices of the banking industry.
7.2 Agents and so on. In providing our services to you, we may use any system for communication, clearing, settlement or payment, intermediary or correspondent bank, agent or other person or organisation. We will act in line with any rules and regulations of any system for clearing, settlement or payment, intermediary or correspondent bank that we choose and any international laws, rules and regulations that apply. You acknowledge that we and our correspondent bank also have to act in line with the laws and regulations of various jurisdictions which relate to money laundering, terrorism funding and legislation or rules on sanctions (for example, political measures taken against one or more jurisdictions).
7.3 Using other organisations. As far as we are allowed under the laws or regulations that apply, we may pass or subcontract any part of our banking operations to anyone in any jurisdiction. We may also deal with and use the services of any of our members when providing our services to you.
8.1 Monitoring your account. It is your responsibility to do the following.
8.2 Instructions. When you ask us to pay, withdraw or transfer funds, it is your responsibility to make sure that you give us complete, clear and accurate information (including all information we need in our standard application forms) so we can carry out your request.
9.1 You or us closing your account. Either of us may close your account at any time and, if it says so in the supplementary terms, the person closing the account will give notice to the other before they do so. When your account is closed, you must pay us promptly all amounts you owe us, including overdrawn amounts (if any), interest, costs, expenses, commission and any other charges you owe on the account. If your account is in credit, we will pay you the balance (after deducting any amount you owe us) by posting a cashier’s order or a banker’s draft for the balance to the address we have for you in our records or in any other way we decide. We will not pay interest on unclaimed balances of closed accounts. This agreement will continue to apply until you and we have met all of our responsibilities.
9.2 Us suspending or closing your account. We may immediately suspend, freeze or close any account at any time without giving you notice or without giving any reason if:
Where we are allowed under relevant laws and regulations, we will tell you we have suspended or closed your account as soon as we can.
9.3 Ending our services. When your account is closed or suspended, we will automatically end all services in connection with the account.
10.1 Money you owe us for charges, fees, interest and taxes and so on. If you owe us any money, fees, interest, commission, costs, tax, charges or other amounts (whether due immediately or later), we have the right, at any time, without giving you notice, to set off and deduct from your account the amount owed, even if this would make your account overdrawn. To do this, we may also combine or consolidate all or any of your accounts with us, whether your accounts are held in your name only or jointly with others. If we need to convert currency, we will do so using our currency exchange rate in force at the time.
10.2 Funds added by mistake. If funds are credited to your account by mistake, we may, once we are aware of the mistake, immediately deduct the funds from your account. We will tell you about the mistake and the amount we have deducted. If you have used or withdrawn the funds, you must return the funds to us as soon as we have told you about the mistake.
10.3 Our rights. Our rights under this clause apply as well as any security interest (for example, mortgage or pledge ), right of set-off or other rights we may have under any law which applies.
11.1 Indemnity. You agree to indemnify (cover) us against or pay to us (or both) all losses, damages, expenses, costs (including legal costs we pay or have to pay to our lawyers and losses, damages, expenses and costs arising out of claims or proceedings) which we may pay or have to pay as a result of:
11.2 What we are not legally responsible for. We will not be liable for any loss, damage, expense, cost, claim or proceeding, whether direct, indirect or consequential and whether arising under contract or not which you, or any other person, may suffer or face due to the following.
12.1 International payments. International payments are made under the rules and regulations of the relevant system for clearing, settlement or payment with which we and any intermediary or correspondent bank must keep to, and the laws and regulations of the jurisdiction where the payment is to be made. If you ask us to transfer funds to another jurisdiction, we will generally not convert those funds into the currency of that jurisdiction, unless you ask us to or we have to under the laws, rules and regulations of that jurisdiction.
12.2 Tax and currency risk. For foreign-currency accounts, you agree that:
If any of the above happen, we will tell you as soon as possible.
12.3 Risks of foreign exchange. You agree that we can convert funds, at our rate of exchange which applies at the time, to the currency of your account and you will accept any loss in value of the funds resulting from changes to the foreign exchange rate if:
13.1 Keeping to sanctions. Specific sanctions and regulations are imposed and enforced against certain countries, organisations and people by the government and regulatory authorities in the jurisdictions where DBS Group Holdings Ltd and its subsidiaries operate, and the government and regulatory authorities of our intermediary/correspondent banks. Under these measures, we or our intermediary/ correspondent banks may not be able to process or take part in transactions which may result in us or our intermediary/correspondent banks not keeping to these sanctions or regulations or our internal policies relating to sanctions. As a result, we may, without affecting any other terms of this agreement:
We will not be liable for any loss, damage, expense, cost, claim or proceeding, whether direct, indirect or consequential, which you or any other person may suffer or face due to us exercising any of our rights in this clause.
14.1 Customer information. We will treat information relating to you, your account and transactions on the account as confidential. However, unless the law says otherwise, you give us and our members permission to give any information relating to you, your account and your transactions and any member of the group of companies to which you belong, to the following.
14.2 Legal right to release information. Our rights under this clause apply as well as, and without affecting, any other rights to release information which we may have under any agreement we have with you or any laws and regulations that apply.
14.3 Continuing permission. The permission you give by agreeing to this clause 14 will apply even after this agreement ends and your account is closed.
15.1 Communication from us. In line with our normal banking practice or as agreed with you, we may send any account statement, deposit confirmation or confirmation of any transaction, correspondence, notice or other communication to you by:
Where necessary, we can also give any notice and communication through the press, radio, television, internet or any other media we choose.
15.2 Any communication from us to you will apply from:
15.3 Communication from you. Any notice, instruction, correspondence or other communication you give us must be in writing and we must receive it. We may accept instructions by phone or over the counter, by fax, by our electronic services or by any other method we may agree with you. You must give us any application forms, authorisations or other documents we may need to do this.
15.4 Lost or delayed communication. Neither you nor we are responsible if any communication is delayed, intercepted, lost or in any other way fails to reach the other when it is being delivered or sent. This also applies if anyone else becomes aware of the contents of any communication when it is delivered or sent.
16.1 Changes. At any time, we may make changes to these standard terms or the supplementary terms. We will give you reasonable notice of changes by either sending you the revised terms, putting them on our website and telling you about them or publishing them in the media. All changes will apply from the date stated in the notice or public announcement.
16.2 Not accepting these terms. If you do not accept the revised standard terms or the revised supplementary terms, you have the option to close your account before they take effect. If you do not close your account after the date the revised terms come into effect, we will treat you as having agreed to the changes.
17.1 Representation. You agree that you will meet your responsibilities under this agreement and that all communication or documents you give us electronically or by fax or as photocopies are true copies of the originals, and that the originals are authentic and complete. You confirm that your obligations under this agreement are valid, binding and enforceable in line with their terms.
17.2 Recording. We may record any telephone conversations we have with any of your directors, officers or authorised signatories. These recordings will be our property and will, unless there is an obvious mistake, be conclusive proof of the conversation.
17.3 Scanned records. You agree that scanned records, electronic data or images of any form, cheque, method of payment or other electronic documents, instruction or communication in connection with your account can be used as evidence in any court proceedings as proof of their contents.
17.4 Joint and separate responsibility. If an account is held by two or more people jointly, or two or more organisations or business names, the account holders will be jointly and severally (jointly and separately) responsible under this agreement.
17.5 Keeping documents. We will keep original documents (for example, cheques, bonds, drafts, bills of exchange) and store any electronic data or images in relation to these documents, for as long as the law and the standards and practices of the banking industry say we must. After this time we may destroy them.
17.6 Tax and other charges. You must make all payments you owe us under this agreement without deducting any tax or other charges payable in relation to the payments.
17.7 Enforcing the conditions. If any of these standard terms or the relevant supplementary terms cannot be enforced or is no longer valid, it will not affect any of the other terms of the standard terms or supplementary terms.
17.8 Failing to enforce our rights. If we decide not to enforce any of our rights under this agreement, it will not mean we will not do so in the future. It also does not mean the right no longer exists.
17.9 Assignment. You may not assign or transfer any right or obligation under this agreement without giving us notice in writing and getting our permission in writing beforehand. You agree that we may assign all or any of our rights and transfer all or any of our rights and obligations under or in connection with this agreement.
17.10 Governing law. These standard terms and the relevant supplementary terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction where your account is opened and held.
17.11 Other languages. If these standard terms or any supplementary terms are translated into a language other than English and there is any difference or inconsistency between the two, the English version will apply (unless otherwise agreed in the supplementary terms).
These supplementary terms apply to your accounts and the services we provide in Australia. These supplementary terms will apply together with the standard terms.
2.1 The definitions in the standard terms will also apply to these supplementary terms, and there are further definitions set out below.
2.2 Difference to standard terms. If there is any difference between the standard terms and these supplementary terms, these supplementary terms will apply.
2.3 Terms governing electronic services. Our current standard terms and conditions which apply to electronic services will continue to apply, including our electronic banking services Terms and conditions.
3.1 Monthly statements. Each month ’s account statement will show transactions carried out after the last transaction shown in the previous month ’s account statement. You agree that the period covered by each month ’s account statement need not match the calendar months exactly.
3.2 Undelivered account statements. If any account statement is returned undelivered, we will not send you any further account statements until you have updated your contact information with us.
3.3 Electronic advice. We may allow you to receive electronic advice (including SMS or email), which we will send you in a way we decide. You will be responsible for paying all charges for receiving electronic advice. Although we will put in place reasonable protection, we do not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, reliability or security of any electronic advice we send to you and you accept the risk that it could be accessed by any unauthorised person . We are not responsible to you or anyone else for losses, damages or expenses arising from inaccurate or inadequate content or by anyone using or relying on the contents of electronic advice.
4.1 Electronic payment instructions. Any instruction you give us to transfer funds electronically has to keep to the laws of the jurisdiction ( country, state, territory or region) where the payment is to be made and any exchange or other restrictions in that jurisdiction at that time. We may refuse any application to transfer funds electronically without giving reasons.
4.2 Refunds. We may refuse your request to refund transferred funds. If we do refund transferred funds and we make the refund in a different currency from the currency of the funds in your account, we will do so at the current exchange rate for the currency for which the payment instruction was issued, after deducting all charges that apply.
4.3 Standing instructions. We may, if you ask us, accept standing instructions to withdraw money from your account and pay it to certain billing organisations, under any terms we set. Any standing instruction will stay in place until we receive notice of your winding-up or liquidation or notice from you to cancel the standing instruction in accordance with the terms of our agreement with you. We may end this standing instruction arrangement at any time by telling you in writing, or without giving you notice, if a billing organisation tells us no further payment is needed. We do not need to carry out any standing instruction if the billing organisation does not accept payment in the way we require.
5.1 Refunds. We may refuse to refund a demand draft. Whether we refund a demand draft will depend on you giving us enough detail to identify the demand draft and return the original demand draft, and any conditions we may set. We will make refunds on a demand draft at our current rate for the currency of the demand draft after deducting all charges that apply.
5.2 Lost or stolen drafts. If a demand draft is lost, stolen or destroyed, we may, if you ask us, and if you meet our conditions, stop payment on the demand draft, issue a replacement for the demand draft or refund the amount of the demand draft.
6.1 Our privacy policy. You agree that the terms of our privacy policy will apply and are a part of these supplementary terms. You also agree that our privacy policy applies to all personal information and that you agree to us collecting, processing, using and disclosing personal information in line with our privacy policy.
6.2 Otherpeople’spersonal information.I f you disclose any individual’s personal information to us (including personal information of your directors, partners, office holders, officers, employees, authorised agents, shareholders and beneficial owners), you confirm that you will obtain and maintain all necessary consents to do this and for us to collect, process, use and disclose (reveal) their personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles and our privacy policy. You will provide such notifications to relevant individuals as required under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) to ensure that the individual is aware that his/her personal information will be disclosed to us and otherwise ensure that all personal information provided to us is accurate, up-to-date, complete and relevant.
6.3 Differences to our privacy policy. If there is any difference between this agreement and our privacy policy, this agreement will apply.
6.4 Continuing permission. The permission you give us in this clause 6 will apply (to the extent permitted by law) even if any individual dies, becomes bankrupt or insolvent or insane or suffers from any disability and will continue after this agreement ends and your account is closed.
7.1 Joint accounts. If an account is in two or more joint names or if any one of you have two or more authorised signatories:
7.2 Conflicting instructions. As well as any rights under this agreement, we may, without asking you, act on any instruction we believe you or your authorised signatory have given us, without further checks, even if the instruction may contradict any other instruction you have given us, or even if the instruction is not genuine, clear or complete. We may record any instructions we receive from you, or which we believe to be from you or your authorised signatories, over the phone or electronically or otherwise. We will own these recordings and you agree that the contents of these recordings are evidence of your instructions to us, and that you will not argue otherwise.
7.3 Closing your account. You agree that we may close your account without giving any reason. We will tell you in writing when we close your account.
7.4 Confidentiality . As well as clause 14.1 of the standard terms and our rights of disclosure under any law that applies , you give us permission or are authorised to give us permission to give any personal information or information we have which relates to you, your account and your transactions, and to any member of the group of companies to which you belong, to:
7.5 Law and jurisdiction. These supplementary terms and the standard terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. You agree that any disputes connected with this agreement may be brought before the courts of New South Wales. Any action brought by you in connection with this agreement must be brought before the New South Wales courts. You agree to be bound by the decision of the New South Wales courts in any action brought by us in New South Wales against you although you also agree that we have the right to bring action in any other court in connection with this agreement.
7.6 Waiving immunity. You waive (give up) any right you may have to immunity from legal proceedings, enforcement or other legal process.
8.1 You will pay all present and future Taxes now or hereafter imposed by law on us or on any payment under this agreement and indemnify us against such payment on demand. We shall have the right to debit the same from your account(s).
8.2 You shall ensure that all amounts payable by you shall be paid free and clear of any deduction or withholding tax. If you are required by law to make any such deduction or withholding, you shall pay to us additional amounts to ensure that we receive a net amount equal to the full amount which we would have received if no such deduction or withholding had been made.
9.1 FATCA reporting, withholding and other requirements. You agree to keep to the terms relating to FATCA tax reporting, withholding and other requirements set out in the Australia Tax Requirements Notice which we issue from time to time and which form part of these supplementary terms. You can get a copy of the Australia Tax Requirements Notice by calling our office at +61 2 8823 9300. If there is any difference between this agreement and the terms in the Australia Tax Requirements Notice, the terms in the Australia Tax Requirements Notice will apply to FATCA and other tax-reporting and withholding requirements.
Withdrawing certain currencies. You can only withdraw amounts in Australian dollars, pounds sterling, United States dollars or Singapore dollars from a fixed deposit account on or after the maturity date of the deposit. (If you make, for example, a three-month fixed deposit, the maturity date would be three months from when you make the deposit.) You can only withdraw currencies other than Australian dollars, pounds sterling, United States dollars and Singapore dollars on or after the maturity date of the deposit if you give us at least two business days’ notice in writing. We will decide the exchange rate that will apply one business day before the date you want to withdraw the currency. If the maturity date does not fall on a business day, we will pay interest on the next business day and calculate it based on the amount in the account at the maturity date.
11.1 PPSA further steps. If we determine that any document that forms part of an agreement is or contains a security interest for the purposes of the PPSA, you must do anything (such as obtaining consents, signing and producing documents, getting documents completed signed and supplying information) which we ask and consider necessary for the purposes of:
11.2 PPSA undertaking. If you or your Guarantor holds any Security Interest for the purposes of the PPSA and if a failure by you or your Guarantor to perfect such Security Interest would result in Material Adverse Effect, you agree to implement, maintain and comply in all material respects with, procedures for the perfection of those Security Interest. These procedures must include procedures designed to ensure that you or your Guarantor takes all steps under the PPSA to continuously perfect any such Security Interest including all steps necessary:
If we ask, you will arrange at your expense an audit of the PPSA procedures. We may ask you to do this if we reasonably suspect that you are not complying with this clause.
11.3 Costs of further steps and undertaking. Everything you or your Guarantor is required to do under this clause is at your expense. You agree to pay or reimburse our reasonable costs in connection with anything you or your Guarantor is required to do under this clause (including any charges and expenses, including those incurred in connection with advisers and any legal costs on a full indemnity basis.)
11.4 No PPSA notice required unless mandatory. We need not give any notice under the PPSA (including a notice of a verification statement) unless the notice is required by the PPSA and cannot be excluded.
11.5 Disclosure of confidential information under the PPSA. You and your Guarantor agree that despite anything else in an agreement, neither you nor we, may disclose any information of the kind referred to in section 275(1) of the PPSA (including any information or documents in connection with any Security Interest) unless section 275(7) of the PPSA otherwise applies. Without our consent, you and your Guarantor also agree:
12.1 You must provide all information to us which we reasonably require in order to manage anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing and economic and trade sanctions risks or to comply with any laws and regulations applicable to a transaction.
12.2 Unless you have disclosed that you are acting in a trustee capacity or on behalf of another party, you warrant that you are acting on your own behalf in entering into this agreement.
12.3 You declare and undertake to us that processing of any transaction by us in accordance with your instructions will not breach any laws or regulations applicable to the transaction.
First asian bank to achieve crystal mark for use of plain english in corporate account terms
Best Bank in the World 2020, Global Finance
World's Best Bank 2019, Euromoney
Global Bank of the Year 2018, The Banker
Best Bank in the World 2018, Global Finance
