Banking secrecy is a legal principle in the legislation of the Russian Federation, according to which financial institutions must protect information about accounts, banking transactions, the financial situation of their clients and other information, unless this contradicts the law.

Banking secrecy is protected by the legislation of the Russian Federation. The bank secrecy regime is not absolute; in situations specified by law, access to data can be provided to government agencies. According to Part 3 of Art. 55 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, deviations from bank secrecy are permissible only if it is necessary in order to protect the foundations of the constitutional system, the rights and legitimate interests of other persons, and ensure the security of the state.

Access to bank secrecy

The bank secrecy regime provides for restricting access to information about the client’s accounts, financial status and transactions. In addition to the owner, such information is available only to the bank and a limited circle of employees of law enforcement and regulatory authorities: credit history bureaus, courts, investigative, tax and customs authorities, the Accounts Chamber, the DIA, the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, the Social Insurance Fund, the FSSP, the Federal Tax Service, the Federal Customs Service. Disclosure of information is carried out in the manner and volume specified by law. To provide access to bank secrets, a court decision, a prosecutor's sanction, an order and other documents are required.

Bank Secrecy Act

Bank secrecy laws are in effect in many countries around the world: Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, the USA and others.

The procedure for providing information to individual government bodies is regulated by orders and regulations.

Protection of bank secrecy

Legal protection of bank secrecy is ensured by the legislation of the Russian Federation. Guarantors of bank secrecy - financial institution, Bank of Russia, deposit insurance agency.

To protect banking secrecy, financial institutions must:
- limit the circle of persons who have access to information constituting banking secrecy;
- organize separate office work with documents containing bank secrecy;
- use technical means to prevent unauthorized access to storage media;
- apply warnings about the need to maintain banking secrecy and responsibility for its disclosure in agreements between the bank and the client.

Violation of banking secrecy

A violation of bank secrecy is the intentional or involuntary disclosure of information recognized as confidential by an official of a financial institution without the consent of the client. If such actions have caused material or reputational damage to an individual or legal entity, the law provides for the possibility of going to court to protect one’s interests. The legislation provides for various types of liability for violation of bank secrecy.

Responsibility for disclosure of bank secrecy

There are civil, administrative and criminal penalties for disclosing bank secrets.

The bank can be brought to civil liability by submitting to the management of the financial institution a claim for compensation for losses caused by the disclosure of information constituting bank secrecy.

To bring a credit institution to administrative responsibility for disclosing bank secrets, a client of a financial institution must submit an application to the police or prosecutor's office.

For illegal disclosure of bank secrets, resulting in grave consequences, criminal liability is provided in accordance with Parts 2, 3, 4 of Art. 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

What is banking secrecy?

Bank secrecy includes:
- data on the status of customer accounts;
- operations carried out on behalf of the client;
- financial situation of clients;
- security systems for the bank and clients;
- information about the structure of the legal entity - the client, about managers, types of activities;
- data on clients’ commercial activities;
- information about the bank’s reporting, with the exception of those subject to publication;
- information security codes, as well as other data, the list of which may be established by the financial institution.

Advice from Sravni.ru: When opening a bank account, you should carefully read the section of the agreement containing information on the protection of bank secrecy.

Bank secrecy (BT) is data about clients that is prohibited from disclosure and transfer to third parties. The law establishes liability for the disclosure of such information. A banking institution, in accordance with existing legislation, must guarantee clients the secrecy of all data related to BT.

Normative base

The concept of bank secrecy is regulated by Article 26 of the Federal Law dated June 28, 2014 No. 189-FZ. In particular, the law establishes the following standards:

• The concept of BT and its components.
• A number of structures that can gain access to BT.
• A number of structures that are required to comply with BT.
• Responsibility for the publication of secret information.

The Federal Law also specifies a list of information that can be transferred to an established list of structures.

Information related to bank secrecy

The list of data that is included in the concept of BT is given in Article 26 of the Federal Law of December 2, 1990 No. 395-1. Let's take a closer look at what exactly relates to banking secrecy:

• Personal information about the client of the financial institution: passport data, information about registration or place of residence, telephone number, details of the legal entity, information about the management of the legal entity.
• Data on financial aspects: account type and number, opening time, amounts deposited.
• Information about financial transactions: currency in which the deposit is opened, amounts deposited and debited, statements, primary documentation drawn up during transactions.
• Information about correspondents of the financial institution: dates of transactions, their procedure and conditions, amounts of funds.
• Information about other activities within the banking institution related to the management of financial flows, internal processes, the significance of which is to maintain confidentiality.

ATTENTION! All information related to BT cannot be transferred to third parties or disclosed through the media.

What cannot be a bank secret?

The following information cannot apply to BT:

• Constituent documents, as well as the Charter of the legal entity.
• Papers on the basis of which a person engages in entrepreneurial activity (for example, a certificate of registration of an individual entrepreneur, a license to carry out specific work).
• Reporting on the financial activities of legal entities.
• Information necessary to control the calculation and payment of taxes and other mandatory payments.
• Documentation confirming solvency.
• Data on the structure of the institution: number of employees and their composition, salaries, working conditions, availability of vacancies.
• Papers confirming the payment of tax contributions and other payments to the country's budget.
• Data on offenses: environmental pollution, problems with antimonopoly law, ignoring the need to ensure safe working conditions, sale of goods harmful to human health.
• Information about the entrepreneurial activities of officials of a banking institution, their participation in joint-stock communities and partnerships.

ATTENTION! It is important to remember that some data related to banking secrecy may be disclosed at the request of authorized structures.

Who is obliged to maintain bank secrecy?

Not only banks, but also some other institutions are required to observe banking secrecy:

• Credit structures.
• Organizations engaged in auditing.
• Payment systems.
• Bank payment agents.
• Operations centers.
• Insurance companies.

All of these institutions have to work directly with clients’ personal data (including financial transactions), which is why there is a ban on disclosure.

Who has access to bank secrets?

Let's consider the structures that have access to information related to BT:

• Judicial authorities of all jurisdictions.
• Tax and customs structures.
• Currency control authority.
• National Accounts Chamber.
• Social Insurance Fund.
• Pension Fund.
• Bailiffs working on the basis of executive documents.
• The police are investigating a case in which banking secrecy can help solve.
• Notaries.
• Consular structures of other countries.
• Authority for the prevention of money laundering.
• Structures for preventing the financing of terrorist groups.
• Official credit history bureau.
• Certain officials.

Bank client management companies can receive only part of the information containing BT. An exception is organizations located in foreign countries. They do not have the authority to request data.

Representatives of this list may request the following information:

• Certificates confirming that legal entities, individuals or individual entrepreneurs have current accounts and deposits.
• Performed financial transactions.
• Balance on account.
• Documentation of transactions carried out with currency or accounts (for example, their closure).
• Information regarding transactions with electronic money.
• Information regarding corporate payment systems and operations with them.

The request for information related to BT must be based on a specific need.

Responsibility for disclosure of bank secrecy

Responsibility for the disclosure of secret information can only be borne by those persons who are obliged to maintain bank secrecy. The following forms of liability are provided:

• Civil. Involves compensation by the bank for the client's losses. To bring a financial institution to this form of liability, it is necessary to prove that the disclosure of BT resulted in losses or lost profits. It will be necessary to justify the cause-and-effect relationship between the two events. This rule is stipulated by paragraph 2 of Article 15 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. First, the client submits a claim for damages to the banking institution. If the claim is rejected, a lawsuit is filed. This procedure must be followed: first, a claim is submitted to the bank, and only then a lawsuit is filed in court. At court hearings, it will be necessary to confirm that the client accepted attempts to settle the case out of court, but the bank refused.
• Administrative. To bring an employee of a banking institution to this form of liability, you need to submit a corresponding application to the police or prosecutor's office. This procedure is established by paragraph 3 of part 1 of article 28.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.
• Criminal. A person is held criminally liable in a limited number of cases. These include obtaining information related to BT through criminal means (bribery, threats). You can also be held criminally liable if, as a result of the disclosure of information, major damage or serious consequences arose, or if the disclosure of BT was made for selfish reasons. These rules are stipulated in Article 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. To start a criminal case, you need to draw up a corresponding statement and submit it to the police. The procedure is established by paragraph 3 of part 1 of Article 140 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

The form of liability depends on the severity of the consequences of disclosing bank secrets. As a rule, this is compensation for damage. The difficulty of bringing to this kind of liability is that it is difficult to prove the amount of real damage. However, if all the documents confirming the harm caused are present, you can safely go to the bank, and then to the judicial authority to receive your legal compensation.

The direct concept of bank secrecy is not given in the legislation of the Russian Federation, but categories of information that relate to bank secrecy are listed. Moreover, the list is not exhaustive. In addition, there is some confusion between banking and trade secrets.

Banking secrecy is outlined in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the Federal Law “On Banks and Banking Activities”. But the lists of objects (categories of information) related to banking secrecy are somewhat different.

There is no disagreement about the classification of information about a bank account and bank deposit as bank secrecy. Dissonance arises in terms of information about the client, which relates to bank secrecy on the basis of Article 857 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, but there is no such rule in the Law “On Banks and Banking Activities”. But there is an indication that other information may be classified as bank secrecy if this is not prohibited by federal law (Article 26 of the Federal Law).

Thus, in general, the concept of “bank secrecy” refers to information relating to the state of the bank account and bank deposit of a client of a credit institution, transactions on the account, as well as information about the account owner.

There are also opposing points of view regarding the classification of lending operations as banking secrecy. Loan accounts are not bank accounts in the civil legal sense of this term; it is not possible to carry out banking operations on a loan account, such as receiving, crediting, transferring, issuing funds. Based on this interpretation of loan accounts, a number of scientists - authors of legal literature - do not classify lending operations as bank secrecy. Other authors prove the opposite point of view on the basis that the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the Federal Law “On Banks and Banking Activities” simply speak about accounts opened for a client in a bank, regardless of their division and classification.

Let us accept as a norm that information about the provision of a loan is a bank secret. Another question arises: how legal is it for a banking organization to provide data? Legal on the basis of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the fact that the bank takes the client’s consent to provide the specified information to the credit history bureau. This item is necessarily included in the terms and conditions. If the client refuses to provide such information, this will also be stated in the loan agreement. In addition, the credit institution takes the consent of the borrower, mortgagor, and guarantor to process personalized data in order to avoid misunderstandings in the future.

Thus, under the current legislation of the Russian Federation there is no clear answer to the question of the scope of bank secrecy, but in banking practice a broad interpretation of bank secrecy is used. In particular, classifying as bank secrecy not transactions on a client’s account, but transactions of a client of a credit institution.

Moreover, considering that the amount of a loan issued to an individual is credited to a demand deposit account or account, and for a legal entity, a loan is received by crediting it to a current account.

Work is a separate issue. Often, credit organizations use the services of collection agencies to collect overdue loans. This helps credit institutions save the time of full-time banking specialists and not distract credit inspectors, lawyers and security personnel from their direct duties. Mostly, undisputed debts are given to collection agencies for outsourcing (external support). It must be said that banks resort to the services of collectors only if their own efforts to collect an overdue debt have not led to the desired result. The advantage of collectors is that they work with each debtor individually, which is quite problematic for a credit institution.

In this matter, the credit institution is guided by the Law “On Banks and Banking Activities”. Article 34 of the law states that a credit institution is obliged to take all measures provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation to collect debt, and the Civil Code of the Russian Federation establishes that the right (claim) belonging to the creditor on the basis of an obligation can be transferred to another person under a transaction (assignment rights of claim) or transfer to another person. Moreover, in order to transfer the rights of the creditor to another person, the consent of the debtor is not required, unless otherwise provided by law or agreement.

In turn, judicial practice also recognizes the right of credit organizations to assign the right of claim under a loan agreement not only to credit organizations, but also to other legal entities that are not credit organizations and do not have the right to engage in banking activities. But, since the situation with the provision of information to a third party (the collector in our case) is still not clear enough, banking organizations cooperating with collection agencies still, as a rule, include in the loan documentation a clause on the client’s consent to the transfer of information constituting bank secrecy , collection agencies and other legal entities in the transaction (assignment of the right of claim) in cases provided for by the contract and current legislation.

Thus, bank secrecy is protected by Russian law. The information classified as bank secrecy can be provided by the banking organization only to the bank clients themselves or their authorized representatives. At the request of government bodies and their officials, information containing bank secrecy can be provided only in exceptional cases and only in the manner prescribed by the current legislation of the Russian Federation.

What is the responsibility of a banking organization and employees for the disclosure of information that is a banking secret?

The Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides for the client of a credit institution the right to demand compensation from the bank for losses caused if information constituting a bank secret was disclosed. Responsible for the safety of information constituting bank secrecy are credit organizations, including non-bank credit organizations, the Bank of Russia, credit history bureaus that collect, provide and store information in the manner prescribed by law about clients of credit organizations who act as borrowers.

Illegal disclosure of information related to bank secrecy may also entail criminal liability on the basis of Part 2 of Article 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Collecting information constituting commercial, tax or banking secrets entails a fine of up to eighty thousand rubles or imprisonment for up to two years.

Illegal disclosure or use of information constituting a bank secret, without the consent of the owner, is punishable by a fine of up to one hundred and twenty thousand rubles, deprivation of holding certain positions or engaging in certain activities for a term of up to three years, or imprisonment of up to three years. If the disclosure of bank secrets caused major damage or was committed out of selfish interest, the fine increases to two hundred thousand rubles, and the term of imprisonment up to five years.

The most serious acts of failure to maintain bank secrecy may be punishable by imprisonment of the person found guilty for up to ten years.

We cannot imagine our life without the convenience of the banking system. Each of us has deposits, current accounts, and credit cards for various purposes. However, few people think that along with cash flows, we trust the bank with our secrets.

Guaranteeing the safety of banking secrecy

When a citizen agrees on cooperation with a bank, the credit institution undertakes to maintain secrecy:

• information about the client;
• bank deposit;
• bank account;
• any transactions on the account.

These requirements for the bank are also confirmed Civil Code of the Russian Federation in paragraph 1 of Art. 857. However, sometimes information “leaks out” from the walls of the bank, and this factor causes serious losses to its client.

If your rights and interests are violated, then you need to urgently contact a lawyer for individuals so that a legal specialist can help:

• prove violation of the law by bank employees;
• competently justify the amount of losses;
• effectively claim compensation for damage in court (clause 3 of Article 857 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

It is worth noting that the bank does not always strive for confrontation. If the management of a credit institution correctly assesses the situation, it will try to smooth out the conflict as quickly as possible.

The bank's security service will try to identify the confidentiality violator as quickly as possible. Moreover, your interests will be defended by an experienced lawyer for individuals, and this is a serious argument in your favor!

Usually the offender has selfish rather than altruistic goals. He is connected with other persons, and this is already a criminal group. Perhaps its goal is the usual theft of funds from an account, your complete financial ruin, or blackmail in order to withdraw money.

The secrecy of deposits is guaranteed by:

• directly to the credit institution;
• an organization engaged in compulsory deposit insurance;
• bank payment agents, also subagents;
• money transfer operators;
• operators providing services in the payment infrastructure.

Bank clients and its correspondents are protected by Law No. 161-FZ of June 27, 2011 (Article 26) and No. 391-1 of December 2, 1990 (Article 26).

What information can constitute a bank secret?

1. These data relate to:

• transactions carried out through the bank, primarily the flow of funds when payment agents (subagents) participate in the process;
• bank accounts;
• contributions (deposits).

2. This may be information about funds:

• about residuals;
• about electronic transfers.

3. Also, personal data cannot be disclosed without the client’s consent.

However, it is still necessary to prove that the information leak occurred in the bank. You need to find documents:

• written;
• electronic.

It is they who must confirm that the interested party, who does not have the right to receive certain information, nevertheless received this information from the hands of bank employees.

Responsibility for disclosure of banking information may be:

• civil;
• administrative;
• criminal

Civil responsibility

The involved lawyer will not only need to confirm the very fact of disclosure of bank secrets, but also competently justify the amount of losses suffered by the client (Clause 2 of Article 15 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). It can be:

• actual damage;
• lost profit.

In such a case, it is very important to substantiate the cause-and-effect relationship between the actions performed by the responsible employee of the credit institution and the losses caused.

A lawyer for individuals helps to formalize and submit a claim to this organization, so that his client is compensated for the damage caused by the disclosure of bank secrecy. The bank does not always agree with these requirements. So you should immediately be prepared to file a claim with a court of general jurisdiction.

Administrative responsibility

There is information classified as “restricted access”. The liability of an employee guilty of disclosing such information is indicated in Art. 13.14. Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. Lawyer for individuals, defending the infringed interests of the client, helps to correctly compose a statement:

• to the prosecutor's office;
• to the police.

This right of his is confirmed by Article 28.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (clause 1 of Article 28.1).

Criminal liability

1. A violator of bank secrecy may be a person who has received information:

• by stealing documents;
• method of threats;
• bribing responsible persons, that is, participating in a conspiracy;
• other illegal means.

2. A person who gained access to bank secrets, since access was due to duty, performed the following actions:

• disclosed information;
• used them without the consent of the individual.

Criminal liability arises under Article 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation if:

• major damage was caused;
• selfish interest has been proven;
• serious consequences have been noted.

A timely contact with a legal specialist will help not only to recover damages, but also to punish the offender criminally. A report to the police (prosecutor's office) about a crime must be drawn up correctly, all facts must be substantiated. This provision of the law is confirmed by clause 3, part 1, art. 140 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

However a lawyer for individuals can act not only on the side of the bank client, but also an employee of a credit institution accused of disclosing bank secrets. It is also necessary to prove that the person who allegedly committed official misconduct or even a crime is not accused in vain and is not responsible for the sins of others.

According to the law, the bank is obliged to guarantee its clients the secrecy of bank accounts, deposits, loans and any transactions on them.

Issues discussed in the material:

• Is banking secrecy violated when transmitting information to collectors?
• What is the liability for violating bank secrecy?

What is bank secrecy? Federal Law N 395-I “On banks and banking activities”

Bank secrecy is information about the client that the bank does not have the right to transfer to third parties. In this article we will talk in detail about information that constitutes banking secrecy and in what situations they can be disclosed to the competent authorities. In accordance with Article No. 26 of the Federal Law of December 2, 1990 N 395-I “On Banks and Banking Activities,” bank secrecy includes information about accounts, deposits and transactions of clients and correspondents of banks and other credit organizations.

The concept of bank secrecy implies information at the disposal of a credit institution and which can be disclosed to third parties only in exceptional cases established by Federal Law No. 395-I “On Banks and Banking Activities”. The task of any bank is to maintain the confidentiality of client information. It should be understood that the leak of information, for example, about the amount of savings on deposits, can cause significant consequences, in particular, criminal prosecution of the deposit owner for the purpose of profit or blackmail. In Russian legislation, there are two main documents that enshrine the concept of bank secrecy and the information that forms it:

• Federal Law N 395-I “On Banks and Banking Activities”
• Civil Code of the Russian Federation

If we analyze these regulatory documents, we can determine that the information constituting bank secrecy includes the following information:

• Passport data of bank clients (for individuals);
• Bank details of the organization (for legal entities);
• Client information about property availability and income level;
• The fact of opening an account (accounts), its number and date of opening, type of account, account currency;
• The fact of the presence of funds in the account (money, unallocated metal accounts), amount, interest on the deposit, term of the agreement;
• The existence of a loan, terms of repayment and receipt, interest rate on the loan;
• Movement of funds in accounts and deposits. Such information includes replenishing a deposit, withdrawing money, transferring to your own accounts or the accounts of other persons.

In short, banking secrecy is any information about bank clients and the transactions they make with their accounts.

Disclosure of bank secrecy about legal entities

Separately, it is worth considering the issue of protecting bank secrecy and the information that constitutes it in relation to legal entities. Legislative norms on bank secrecy have a number of exceptions and, first of all, this is due to the fact that government agencies will not be able to carry out their work of control and financial monitoring to the required extent due to the lack of information about the availability and flow of funds in the accounts of organizations and enterprises, and the amounts As is known, there is orders of magnitude more money there than in the accounts of individuals. For this reason, in certain cases (strictly prescribed in Federal Law N 395-I and the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), a banking organization is obliged to report information constituting bank secrecy at the request of an authorized body, and sometimes without a request automatically, especially with regard to suspicious transactions and cash movements. funds from legal entities' accounts.

In particular, statements of accounts of individual entrepreneurs and legal entities are provided by the bank based on requests from the following government services and structures:

• Courts;
• Tax Inspectorate;
• Rosfinmonitoring;
• Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation;
• Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP);
• Customs Service;
• Pension Fund of Russia (PFR);
• Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation (FSS);
• Ministry of Internal Affairs (in the investigation of tax crimes).
• Investigative bodies (four departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, SKP, FSB, FSKN).

In addition to account statements, banks are required to provide tax services with information about the opening or closing of deposits of individual entrepreneurs and legal entities; banks are also required to inform in the event of a change in the details of deposits of organizations or individual entrepreneurs.

According to the law, the Central Bank of Russia has the right to receive information constituting bank secrecy about legal entities from credit institutions.

Abolition of bank secrecy, economic news:

There are also non-governmental organizations that have the right to receive data that constitute banking secrecy, for example, the credit history bureau (BKI). But there is one “but” here - information about banking transactions can be transferred to this organization only with the consent of the client (as a rule, this condition is specified in the agreement with the bank).

Disclosure of bank secrecy about individuals

To whom can the bank disclose information constituting bank secrecy about citizens' accounts? The following services and government agencies have the right to request information that constitutes banking secrecy about individuals from a credit institution:

• Bailiffs Service;
• Central Bank of the Russian Federation;
• Deposit Insurance Agency;
• Investigative authorities.

No credit organization has the right to refuse to disclose bank secrets about individuals to the above-mentioned government services and structures.

Separately, it is worth noting the case of the death of a bank client; in such a situation, the credit institution needs to inform persons associated with the former client (for example, heirs) and provide them with information that constitutes the citizen’s banking secret. Such information may include information about deposits and current bank accounts of the deceased. In such situations, banks apply the following rules:

• If the client has not drawn up a testamentary disposition during his lifetime, then information about his bank accounts will be transferred to a notary who has opened an inheritance case in connection with the death of this person.
• If the client has made a testamentary disposition regarding his bank savings during his lifetime (drawn up and executed directly at the bank branch without the need to notarize), then the bank secret will be disclosed to the heirs whom the citizen indicated in the decree document.

Currently, the Federal Tax Service has the right to request information from banks about the closure or opening of deposits and accounts of citizens. An important point: a particular tax office (IFTS) has the right to request information about an individual that constitutes a banking secret only when such a request is agreed upon with a higher tax authority.

As for the credit history bureau, information about the banking transactions of an individual, which constitutes a banking secret, can be transferred to the BKI only with the consent of the citizen. In most cases, when signing a banking service agreement with a client, it contains a clause stating that the citizen is not against providing some information that is a bank secret to the credit history bureau.

Is banking secrecy violated if information is transferred to a collection agency?

From the current judicial practice it is clear that banking structures have the right to transfer debts on loans of their clients to collection firms. But such actions can only be carried out if a number of conditions are met:

• The debt is transferred by drawing up an agreement on the assignment of the right of claim. In this case, all provisions of the Civil Code of Russia on the assignment agreement must be observed.
• If the borrower of the loan is an individual, then the sale of debt to collection companies (that do not have one) is possible only if this is stipulated in the loan agreement signed by the client-borrower.
• If a citizen’s debt is recognized by the court and a writ of execution is issued to the creditor, it can be transferred to any third party, even if the debtor did not consent to such a transfer. (Definition of the Supreme Court No. 89-KG15-5 dated 07/07/2015).

Therefore, if the above conditions are met, in the case of transferring and providing her with information about the debtor, such actions do not constitute a violation of a citizen’s bank secrecy.

However, collection agency employees, like bank employees, are required to comply with measures to protect information that is a bank secret from unauthorized persons.

What is the liability for violating bank secrecy? Art. 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Information constituting banking secrecy is protected by law, therefore authorized persons are obliged to maintain banking secrecy of clients. For the disclosure of such information, the legislation of the Russian Federation provides for liability, even criminal liability!

If an employee of a credit institution violates bank secrecy, the client has every right to demand compensation for the damage caused to him. However, the victim of the disclosure of his bank secrets by negligent employees of the credit institution is obliged to prove the fact of causing losses and their amount. Practice shows that this is associated with certain difficulties.

Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in Art. 183. “Illegal receipt and disclosure of information constituting commercial, tax or banking secrets” determines that, depending on the severity of the consequences of disclosing information containing banking secrets, the following types of punishment may be imposed on the perpetrator:

• A fine of up to 1,500,000 rubles or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to three years;
• Deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a period of up to three years;
• Forced labor for up to five years;
• Imprisonment for up to 7 years.

Article 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation applies not only to employees of banking organizations; it can also be applied to other persons who had access to information constituting bank secrecy and violated it.

Liability is also provided for persons who illegally collect information constituting commercial, tax or banking secrets by stealing documents, bribery or threats, as well as in other illegal ways.