As its name indicates, bank secrecy is the right or power that a financial entity possesses so as not to reveal certain private information of its clients to other authorities that require it.
As with other types of professional secrecy, bank secrecy allows the bank or financial institution to hide the information that it has promised that it will not reveal about its clients to other people. They talk about both personal or private information, as well as the activities that derive from it.
Unlike common professional secrecy, bank secrecy goes a step further: it implies that private data is not published if the public Administration so requires. In this way, customer information is secured before said financial institution, with different levels of privacy.
But, in what cases can bank secrecy be lifted?
Banking secrecy has its exceptions, as it will not always be safe. As long as there is no investigation for possible crimes against a user, the information of that person will remain confidential. In other words, if a Public Administration requires data from a financial institution, it cannot respond; but if a judge or similar entities requests the information, it should respond and adjust to the requirements.
On the other hand, the concept of bank secrecy is more associated in countries with little dimension such as Switzerland or Luxembourg, and where the risk of the difficulty of fiscal transparency it is not in danger. They are countries with a small State and one that does not have to give many explanations for the handling of money or information that is produced in it.