Surely many of us regularly use the most diverse services of commercial banks. Some clients prefer to keep their money savings in credit organizations, others entrust their values to them (safe deposit boxes), others become borrowers in order to acquire the object of cherished dreams for the amount received at interest. Plastic cards for convenient use of wages, various services, urgent transfers with or without a personal account — now every bank is trying to offer its customers something new and compete with the “giants” of this sector. Of course, there are enough nuances here. But each client of a credit institution must take into account such a feature as bank secrecy. What does this concept hold in itself, and what guarantees, as well as problems, are acquired by a person who is serviced in this area?
To begin with, it is worth immediately distinguishing between such definitions as commercial and banking secrets. The first, in fact, is a broader concept than the second. In some sources, you can even find such an interpretation that defines the secrecy of credit organizations as one of the varieties of commercial. However, this is not entirely true. Banking secrecy is the law for these institutions, on the basis of which all representatives of the organization are obliged to store all the information they have on their hands about their customers without access to it by third parties, even if the information does not have special value.
As in most similar cases, there are exceptions to the rules. Sometimes a bank simply does not have the right to refuse certain organizations to provide information that relates to customers. Such institutions are, first of all, representatives of state-level bodies. However, such a procedure requires a good reason to justify an exception. For example, the complex, confusing or suspicious nature of a financial transaction performed by a client in the event that its amount is equal to or exceeds 600 thousand rubles. In this case, bank laws imply mandatory control of the transaction. This is done in order to prevent financing with the help of commercial organizations of terrorist communities, as well as money laundering.
Bank secrecy involves the provision of information about all accounts, as well as the amounts received by the institution for storage in accordance with the terms of the concluded deposit agreements, to a narrow circle of people. As in the case of individuals and legal entities, all information can be provided exclusively to the clients themselves, their official representatives, proxies, the judicial authorities, as well as insurance companies and representatives of the preliminary investigation authorities in criminal and administrative cases (there must be the consent of the prosecutor) .
If the owner of a deposit or account of a different nature dies, then in such a situation bank secrecy has the following features. If a will is drawn up (notarized or executed directly at a credit institution), the persons indicated in this document may receive all the necessary information. To do this, they will need to provide identification documents. In addition, the information is received, without any violation of the law, at the full disposal of the notary. For this office will have to make a request. In this case, the bank employee responsible for fulfilling these obligations draws up the answer on the institution's letterhead. The information should fully answer all the questions stated on the request.
If we are talking about non-residents (persons having foreign citizenship), in this case, bank secrecy implies the provision of all necessary data to consular offices.