Commentary on Sections Part 1: Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Chapter 4: Information about Banking Transactions Section 42: Offence of disclosure
101.This section creates criminal offences in relation to the unlawful disclosure of information. The purpose of the section is to ensure that financial institutions do not inform their customers of any requests for customer or account information, or that an investigation is being carried out, or that information has been passed on by the financial institution. A financial institution, or an employee of the institution, is guilty of an offence if it (or, as the case may be, the employee) discloses the types of information specified in subsection (3), and subsections (4) and (5) provide for the penalties which may be imposed if such an offence is committed.