This book is based on material presented at the International Bar Association’s 1989 Annual Banking Seminar. The Banking Committee conducted a comparative survey of the laws relating to banking confidentiality in a wide variety of jurisdictions ranging from Switzerland, Austria, Germany etc. to the common law jurisdictions, i.e., the U.K., New Zealand and Australia. That was compared with the position in the U.S. and Canada. The papers presented at the conference are published in this excellent book, which examines the law on bank confidentiality at both a national and international level.

The survey undertaken in the book makes it a unique publication, as it gathers together the law on bank confidentiality. The varied approaches adopted by the different countries in dealing with the, sometimes emotional, area of bank disclosure of confidential information are explored. The respective attitudes of the banking community, the legislature and the judiciary are nowhere more apparent than in the question of the enforcement of a breach of duty. The book explores these attitudes in countries where a breach of confidentiality is made a criminal offence and contrasts that with jurisdictions where such a breach is no more than a civil wrong. The doubts and uncertainties of the law are explored, as are the weaknesses of the law.

The book, through the papers published, recognizes that bank confidentiality is a major area of the law which must develop with the changing demands of the business community