Bangladesh Bank (BB) has instructed non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) to comply with the Banker's Book Evidence Act-202.

According to the Act, any NBFIs’ officials or employees, like a bank, responsible for disclosing customers’ information to unauthorized persons would face imprisonment for a maximum of three years or a fine of Tk10 lakh or both.

However, the offenses under this Act will be non-enforceable, bailable and will be negotiable with the consent of the court, the BB directive said.

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The Financial Institutions and Markets Department of BB issued such a directive on Sunday and sent it to the managing directors and chief executive officers of all financial institutions.

Earlier, the central bank issued similar instructions to commercial banks.

The directive states that financial institutions cannot provide customer information to any person or organization without permission.

Bangladesh Bank or any person authorized or appointed by them, including Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and any other body investigating money laundering can take customer information if they want.

In addition, information cannot be disclosed to anyone other than a lawyer, consultant or advisor contracted to provide services to the bank. The law provides for limited disclosure of information on banking or ancillary activities under the outsourcing system.

Information may not be disclosed to any third party service provider, not affiliated with the bank.

In this case, to disclose the information of a customer's deposit, the consent of the concerned customer has to be taken. The customer has to be informed about this before disclosing the loan information.

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According to the circular, the Banker's Book Evidence Act-2021, which was passed in the parliament on November 27, 2021 has been implemented since December 7. Financial institutions have been instructed to take necessary steps in this regard.

Documents like bank ledger books and cash books are called 'testimonials' in the terminology of law. The digital record of the bill will also be considered as 'Evidence Book'. Banks' ledger books, cash books, loan disposal books are all included.