Law on Bank Secrecy Sample Clauses

Law on Bank Secrecy. The Law on Bank Secrecy prevents a bank from sharing bank secrets, unless the bank obtains the consent of the customer, with anyone other than: other banks and licensed credit institutions, the Central Bank of Armenia (in connection with its supervisory role), those performing work for or representing the bank, and certain other specific groups not directly relevant to the operation of credit bureaus (heirs of the customer in accordance with procedures set forth by law, and the following additional parties pursuant to a court order: criminal prosecutorial authorities, tax authorities, and the court itself). The term “bank secret” is defined in the law broadly enough to cover the types of information about a bank customer that are customarily gathered and disseminated by a credit bureau with respect to loans and credits; the prohibition relates to bank secrets of all customers of a bank -- that is, both individuals and legal entities. Some have suggested that the provision of the law permitting banks to provide bank secrets to “those performing work for or representing the bank” would permit the provision of information about a bank’s customers to private credit bureaus. This interpretation comports with the interpretation given to similar language used under U.S. law. However, in Armenia, this exception permitting disclosure by a licensed bank of customer information to “those performing work [for] or representing the bank” was apparently intended to allow a bank to deal with its outside vendors (such as its external auditors) and to conduct bank operations efficiently, and was not included in anticipation of the establishment of a credit information- sharing system. Even if the provision in question were accepted as a legal basis for banks to provide bank secrets to private credit bureaus, disclosure by a credit bureau to any party (other than presumably a party to whom a bank is otherwise permitted to disclose the information, such as the Central Bank) without the customer’s consent would violate the Law on Bank Secrecy. Thus, a private credit bureau would, at the most, be able to share such information with only those institutions that currently receive information from the public registry maintained by the Central Bank and would not be permitted to share information with the many other types of parties (such as microlenders and municipal tax authorities and utilities) currently excluded from the list of permitted recipients of customer information. As ...