Description

As every banking-lawyer knows, banks are expected to keep their customer’s information confidential. The first presentation by Assoc Prof Dora Neo will give a general perspective of the bank’s duty of confidentiality, including the basis of the duty; contractual as compared to penal aspects of the duty; the relationship between bank confidentiality and areas such as data protection; and how the landscape of this duty has altered in recent years due to international efforts to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and tax evasion. These recent developments are reflected in Singapore’s statutory regime. As a result of recent changes to the Banking Act, the nomenclature is also set to change from ‘secrecy’ to ‘privacy’. These matters are examined in the second presentation by Dr Sandra Booysen, which will focus on various aspects of the bank confidentiality regime that operates in Singapore, including the situations in which disclosure of customer information is permitted, the effectiveness of standard form consent-to-disclosure clauses, and developments in exchange of information for tax purposes.

About The Speaker

Dora Neo and Sandra Booysen are Associate Professors at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. Dora is Director of the Faculty’s Centre for Banking & Finance Law (CBFL), and Sandra is an executive committee member of CBFL. They share common teaching and research interests in the fields of contract and banking law. Dora and Sandra are co-editing a book to be published by Cambridge University Press on bank secrecy in major financial centres around the world.