Singapore legislation
Section 49
Section 49
Confidentiality
(1)
Information regarding a protected party or the business or other affairs of the protected party (called in this section protected information) must not, in any way, be disclosed by a licensed trust company in Singapore or any of its officers to any other person except as expressly provided in this Act.
(2)
A licensed trust company in Singapore or any of its officers may, for such purpose as may be specified in the first column of the Third Schedule, disclose protected information to such persons or class of persons as may be specified in the second column of that Schedule, and in compliance with such conditions as may be specified in the third column of that Schedule.
(3)
Where any protected information is likely to be disclosed in any proceedings referred to in item 3 or 4 of Part 1 of the Third Schedule, the court may, either of its own motion or on the application of any party to the proceedings or the protected party to which the information relates —
direct that the proceedings be held in camera; and
make any further orders that the court considers necessary to ensure the confidentiality of the information.
(4)
Where an order has been made by a court under subsection (3), any person who, contrary to the order, publishes any information that is likely to lead to the identification of any party to the proceedings shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $75,000.
(5)
Any person (including, where the person is a body corporate, an officer of the body corporate) who receives any protected information referred to in Part 2 of the Third Schedule must not, at any time, disclose the information or any part of the information to any other person, except as authorised under that Schedule or if required to do so by an order of court.
(6)
Any person who contravenes subsection (1) or (5) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —
in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding $75,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both; or
in any other case, to a fine not exceeding $150,000.
(7)
In this section and in the Third Schedule, unless the context otherwise requires —
where disclosure of any protected information is authorised under the Third Schedule to be made to any person which is a body corporate, such information may be disclosed to such officers of the body corporate as may be necessary for the purpose for which the disclosure is authorised under that Schedule; and
the obligation of any officer or other person who receives any protected information referred to in Part 2 of the Third Schedule continues after the termination or cessation of the officer’s or other person’s appointment, employment, engagement or other capacity or office in which the officer or other person had received such information.
(8)
To avoid doubt, nothing in this section is to be construed to prevent a licensed trust company from entering into an express agreement with a protected party of that licensed trust company for a higher degree of confidentiality than that prescribed in this section and in the Third Schedule.
(9)
Where, in the course of an inspection under section 40 or an investigation under section 41 or the carrying out of the Authority’s function of supervising or regulating a licensed trust company, the Authority incidentally obtains any protected information and such protected information is not necessary for the supervision or regulation of the licensed trust company by the Authority, then, such protected information must be treated as secret by the Authority.
(10)
Nothing in subsection (9) prevents the Authority from disclosing or publishing consolidated statements aggregating any information obtained by the Authority under section 30(3).