Bank Secrecy

According to ACAMS International Glossary of Key Money Laundering Terms and Acronyms Legislation, bank secrecy prohibits banks in certain countries from revealing the existence of an account relation­ship with a customer or disclosing information about the account or customer without consent of the customer. Recommendation IV of the Financial Action Task Force's 40 Recommendations of 2003 states that "countries should ensure that financial institution secrecy laws do not inhibit implementation of the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations". Many jurisdictions with strict bank secrecy laws have corresponding laws relat­ing to the non-disclosure of the owners of corpora­tions and trusts.