Clause 5

A supervisory authority which is responsible for regulating the head office of a bank incorporated outside Singapore may conduct an inspection, solely for supervisory purposes and under conditions of secrecy, of the books and accounts of any branch of that bank in Singapore if the following conditions are satisfied:

where it has obtained the prior written approval of the Authority;

where it is prohibited by its domestic law from divulging information obtained in the course of the inspection to any other person or it has given an undertaking to the Authority not to divulge the information obtained to any person other than the Authority; and

where it has given to the Authority a written undertaking to comply with the provisions of this Act and any condition imposed by the Authority under this section.(2) Subject to any condition imposed by the Authority under subsection (3), the supervisory authority, in carrying out an inspection under subsection (1) —

may examine the credit facilities in or of the branch and the internal control systems of the branch (including internal control systems relating to the treasury and other operations in the branch) and, with the prior approval of the Authority, other matters relating to the branch; and

shall not have access to information relating to the deposits of customers of the branch and such other information as the Authority may specify.(3) The Authority shall, at any time before or after granting approval for an inspection under this section, require the supervisory authority to comply with the conditions relating to —

the classes of information to which the supervisory authority shall or shall not have access in the course of the inspection;

the conduct of the inspection;

the disclosure of information obtained in the course of the inspection; and

such other matters as the Authority may determine.(4) For the purposes of ensuring the confidentiality of any information obtained in the course of an inspection by a supervisory authority under this section —

subsections (1) and (2) of section 47 shall apply to the supervisory authority and the references to the Authority in those subsections shall be read as references to the supervisory authority; and

section 47(3) shall apply to any official of the supervisory authority as if such official is an official of any bank.”.