Duties relating to customer information
13.—(1)  A licensed credit bureau and any of its officers must not use any of its members’ customer information received from any of its members except —
(a)where it is strictly necessary to create a credit report; or
(b)for any other purpose that the Authority may permit by written notice to the licensed credit bureau.
(2)  Without affecting section 16, a licensed credit bureau and any of its officers must not disclose any of its members’ customer information (including a credit report of a member’s customer that contains such information) received from any of its members to any person except —
(a)to an approved member of the licensed credit bureau where the disclosure is strictly necessary to enable the approved member to assess the creditworthiness of its customer; or
(b)to any other person if it is permitted by the Authority by written notice to the licensed credit bureau and in accordance with such conditions as may be specified in the notice.
(3)  The Authority may at any time add to, vary or revoke any condition imposed under this section.
(4)  Despite any provision in this Act, a licensed credit bureau and any of its officers must not collect from its members —
(a)customer information concerning a customer that is —
(i)a public authority;
(ii)a monetary authority or central bank of any country or territory; or
(iii)a sovereign wealth fund; or
(b)their deposit information.
(5)  Despite subsection (2), a licensed credit bureau and any of its officers must not use or disclose to any person —
(a)any of its members’ customer information received from the member where the customer is —
(i)a public authority;
(ii)a monetary authority or central bank of any country or territory; or
(iii)a sovereign wealth fund; or
(b)any of its members’ deposit information received from the member.
(6)  Despite subsection (2), a licensed credit bureau that holds a licence under section 7(2)(b) or (c) and any of its officers must not —
(a)collect from its members customer information; or
(b)use or disclose any customer information received from any of its members,
concerning a customer that is a prescribed entity.
(7)  Despite anything in this section —
(a)a licensed credit bureau may disclose its members’ customer information received from any of its members to any of its officers if the disclosure is solely for the purpose of carrying on the licensed credit bureau’s credit reporting business; and
(b)an officer of a licensed credit bureau may disclose customer information of a member of the licensed credit bureau received from any of its members to —
(i)another officer of the licensed credit bureau; or
(ii)the licensed credit bureau,
if the disclosure is solely in connection with the performance of the duties of such officer.
(8)  Any person that contravenes subsection (1), (2), (4), (5) or (6) 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.
(9)  In this section, unless the context otherwise requires —
(a)where customer information of a member of a licensed credit bureau may be disclosed under subsection (2) to any person that is a body corporate, the 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 subsection (2); and
(b)the obligation of any officer of the licensed credit bureau not to disclose any customer information of a member of the licensed credit bureau mentioned in subsection (2), (5) and (6) continues after the termination or cessation of his or her appointment, employment, engagement or other capacity or office with the licensed credit bureau.
(10)  In this section —
“officer” has the meaning given by section 2(1) of the Banking Act 1970;
“sovereign wealth fund” means the central government of a country or territory, or an entity wholly and beneficially owned by such government, whose funds (which may include the reserves of that government and any pension or provident fund of that country) are managed by a government‑owned entity.
(11)  This section applies to any data received by a licensed credit bureau in a request under section 18(1) or (2) as it applies to customer information of any member of the licensed credit bureau.
(12)  This section does not affect the duty of a licensed credit bureau or any of its officers to provide any customer information of any of its members to the Authority or any other person under any other provision of the Act.