Dear Claudienne

My husband and I run a business and we have a joint current account at a bank. I discussed some personal business with one of the officers at the bank. I told him that the discussion was confidential and that I would prefer that my husband not know. However, the banker in a meeting with my husband disclosed all the information I had confidentially told him.

Then in a conversation with my husband, after he went to see the banker, he started talking about matters that I had not disclosed to him.

I told the banker that I was planning to start another business with somebody other than my husband, but because the banker told him I had to abandon the idea.

My husband was very upset and abused me. The disclosure has caused unrest in the family and my husband to distrust me.

Please find out for me if what the banker did was a breach of the secrecy policy of the bank.

AT

Dear AT

The bank in question wants to meet with you. The bank said that it is bound under Section 45 of the Banking Act “not to disclose any information regarding the money or other relevant particulars of the account of its customer except in specified situations”. Specific exemptions in relation to the bank’s duty of no-disclosure are set out in Scheule 4 of the Banking Act, it was explained to Tell Claudienne.

The bank spokesman said that in support of the laws regarding disclosure, all members of staff are required as a condition of their contract of employment “to preserve the confidentiality of communication and transactions between the organisation and its customers”. The bank said that all of its employees are required to sign a Declaration of Secrecy.

“As a result, the bank and its employees would have a duty of confidentiality to its customers and would not be able to disclose information regarding its customers’ affairs save in the exceptions outlined in law,” the spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, the exceptions as outlined in the law include: (1) information being disclosed by one officer of a bank to another officer of the same bank, (2) if the information is disclosed to an authorised officer, (3) disclosure in connection with civil proceedings in court.

Information about an account can also be divulged if the bank is given written permission by the holder of the account or his personal representative to do so.

The exception is also applicable if the bank’s customer is an undischarged bankruptor, or if the customer is a company and it is being wound up, if it is “brought by the bank by way of interpleader in connection with competing claims by two or more parties to money in the customer’s account”.

Good luck.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 511-2436 or write to: Tell Claudienne, c/o Sunday Finance Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail: edwardsc@ jamaicaobserver.com