Duty to maintain confidentiality of customer information
33.—(1)  Except for a purpose mentioned in subsection (2), an approved member of a licensed credit bureau and any of the member’s officers must not —
(a)request from the licensed credit bureau, any customer information (including a credit report of the member’s customer) of that or any other approved member of the licensed credit bureau; or
(b)use any customer information (including any such information in a credit report) of that or any other approved member of the licensed credit bureau received from the licensed credit bureau.
(2)  The purposes in subsection (1) are —
(a)where the customer information is strictly necessary to assess the creditworthiness of a customer of the approved member; or
(b)any other purpose that the Authority may permit, by written notice.
(3)  An approved member of a licensed credit bureau, and any of the member’s officers, must not disclose to the licensed credit bureau, any customer information of that or any other approved member of the licensed credit bureau except —
(a)where the customer information is strictly necessary to create a credit report;
(b)to enable the licensed credit bureau to make a disclosure under section 13(2)(b);
(c)to enable the licensed credit bureau to make a disclosure under section 16; or
(d)for any other purpose that the Authority may permit by written notice and in accordance with such conditions as may be specified in the notice.
(4)  An approved member of a licensed credit bureau, and any of the member’s officers, must not disclose to any other person customer information of any other approved member of the licensed credit bureau that the firstmentioned approved member has received from the licensed credit bureau except —
(a)to the customer to which the information relates;
(b)where the disclosure is by any of the approved member’s officers, such disclosure is to the approved member;
(c)to that licensed credit bureau; or
(d)to any other person if the disclosure is permitted by the Authority by written notice and in accordance with such conditions as may be specified in the notice.
(5)  Despite subsections (3) and (4)(c), an approved member of a licensed credit bureau, and the approved member’s officers, must not disclose to the licensed credit bureau, any customer information of that or any other approved member of the licensed credit bureau, if the licensed credit bureau’s licence —
(a)has lapsed;
(b)is revoked; or
(c)is suspended.
(6)  The Authority may at any time add to, vary or revoke any condition imposed under this section.
(7)  Despite subsections (3) and (4)(c), an approved member of a licensed credit bureau and the approved member’s officers must not disclose any of its deposit information to the licensed credit bureau.
(8)  To avoid doubt, subsections (3), (4), (5) and (7) do not affect the rights of disclosure that the approved member or any of its officers has under any other written law, including the Banking Act 1970.
(9)  Any person that contravenes subsection (1), (3), (4), (5), (7) or any condition imposed under subsection (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.
(10)  In this section, unless the context otherwise requires —
(a)where customer information of an approved member of a licensed credit bureau may be disclosed under subsection (3) or (4) 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 that subsection; and
(b)the obligation of any officer of the approved member not to disclose any customer information of any approved member of the licensed credit bureau mentioned in subsection (3), (4), (5) and (7) continues after the termination or cessation of his or her appointment, employment, engagement or other capacity or office in which he or she has been provided the customer information.
(11)  In this section, “officer” has the meaning given by section 2(1) of the Banking Act 1970.
(12)  This section applies to corrected data received by the approved member from the licensed credit bureau under section 18(3)(b)(ii) as it applies to customer information of any approved member of the licensed credit bureau received by the approved member from the licensed credit bureau.