Role of the Secretary in Accepting and Managing Deposits

Every statutory condition studied in this chapter — the resolution, the circular or advertisement, the Deposit Repayment Reserve, the credit rating, the trustee appointment, the annual return — has to actually be carried out by someone inside the company, and in practice that someone is the Secretary, acting under the Board's authority. A Std 12 Secretarial Practice student should be able to set out, in a properly organised answer, exactly what the Secretary does at each stage of a deposit's life: before it is accepted, while it remains outstanding, and when it falls due for repayment.

Before a company accepts or renews any deposit, the Secretary's work is almost entirely one of compliance preparation. The Secretary drafts the notice and the resolution — an ordinary resolution for deposits from members under Section 73(2), a special resolution for deposits from the public under Section 76 — for the Board's and, where required, the members' approval, and ensures the resolution is properly passed and recorded in the minutes. The Secretary then drafts the circular, or the public advertisement, in Form DPT-1, making sure it genuinely discloses the company's financial position, its credit rating (where applicable), and the number and amount of deposits already outstanding, and arranges for its filing with the Registrar of Companies within the statutory time limit, and — for a public invitation under Section 76 — its publication in an English and a vernacular newspaper. Where deposits are being invited from the public, the Secretary also coordinates the appointment of a credit rating agency and of a trustee for depositors, ensures the deposit trust deed (Form DPT-2) is executed before the circular or advertisement is issued, and confirms the company genuinely satisfies the eligible-company net-worth or turnover threshold before any invitation goes out at all.

Once deposits have actually been accepted, the Secretary's duties turn to ongoing record-keeping and monitoring. A Register of Deposits must be maintained at the company's registered office, recording every depositor's name, address, the amount and date of the deposit, the rate of interest, and the maturity date, preserved for the period the Rules require. The Secretary issues the deposit receipt to each depositor within the statutory time limit, ensures the Deposit Repayment Reserve Account is funded to at least twenty per cent of the following year's maturing deposits by every 30th of April, arranges for the credit rating to be refreshed annually for as long as public deposits remain outstanding, and handles the company's ongoing correspondence with individual depositors — acknowledging deposits, answering queries about maturity and interest, and dealing with requests for a duplicate deposit receipt. …