Banking Act 1970 - Singapore Statutes Online

Privacy of customer information

47.—(1) Customer information must not, in any way, be disclosed by a bank in Singapore or any of its officers to any other person except as expressly provided in this Act.

[5/2016]

(2) A bank in Singapore or any of its officers may, for such purpose as may be specified in the first column of the Third Schedule, disclose customer information to such persons or class of persons as may be specified in the second column of that Schedule, and in compliance with such conditions as may be specified in the third column of that Schedule.

(3) Where customer information is likely to be disclosed in any proceedings mentioned in item 3 or 4 of Part 1 of the Third Schedule, the court may, either of its own motion, or on the application of any party to the proceedings or the customer to which the customer information relates —

(a)	direct that the proceedings be held in private; and [Act 25 of 2021 wef 01/04/2022]
(b)	make such further orders as it may consider necessary to ensure the confidentiality of the customer information.

(4) Where an order has been made by a court under subsection (3), any person who, contrary to such an order, publishes any information that is likely to lead to the identification of any party to the proceedings shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $125,000.

(5) Any person (including, where the person is a body corporate, an officer of the body corporate) who receives customer information mentioned in Part 2 of the Third Schedule must not, at any time, disclose the customer information or any part of the customer information to any other person, except as authorised under that Schedule or if required to do so by an order of court.

(6) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) or (5) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —

(a)	in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding $125,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both; or
(b)	in any other case, to a fine not exceeding $250,000.

(7) In this section and in the Third Schedule, unless the context otherwise requires —

(a)	where disclosure of customer information is authorised under the Third Schedule to be made to any person which is a body corporate, customer information may be disclosed to such officers of the body corporate as may be necessary for the purpose for which the disclosure is authorised under that Schedule; and
(b)	the obligation of any officer or other person who receives customer information mentioned in Part 2 of the Third Schedule continues after the termination or cessation of the officer’s or other person’s appointment, employment, engagement or other capacity or office in which the officer or other person had received customer information.

(8) To avoid doubt, nothing in this section is to be construed to prevent a bank from entering into an express agreement with a customer of that bank for a higher degree of confidentiality than that prescribed in this section and in the Third Schedule.

(9) Where, in the course of an inspection under section 43 or an investigation under section 44 or the carrying out of the Authority’s function of supervising the financial condition of any bank, the Authority incidentally obtains customer information and such information is not necessary for the supervision or regulation of the bank by the Authority, then, such information must be treated as secret by the Authority.

(10) [Deleted by Act 1 of 2020]

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