Expert: Opening banking secrecy will violate basic principles of democracy and human rights

Banking secrecy is a basic principle of democracy and human rights. Currently, there are clearly defined procedural procedures that precede its disclosure, and there is no need to open banking secrecy. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by the Executive Director of the Economic Discussion Club Oleg Pendzin.  

"We need to understand the context in which the abolition of banking secrecy is being discussed. Is it a form of obtaining additional information about a person, about his or her business transactions, or is it control over the transfer of funds.

That is, at the moment, even in the extremely tough conditions of European control over money laundering, there is no... in different countries, of course, differently, but basically there is clearly preserved banking secrecy and privacy. These are the basic principles of democracy and human rights," Penzin said.

He noted that when it comes to disclosing banking secrecy, it is necessary to understand why it is necessary, because no one needs it as a goal in itself.

"As a rule, banking secrecy provides additional information. As of today, law enforcement agencies can obtain all the information about a person's transactions within the framework of an open criminal case by decision of an investigating judge. There is no 100% prohibition, the other thing is that this should be done within the framework of the Criminal Procedure Code," Pendzin said.

At the same time, he believes that because there are clearly defined procedural procedures that precede the disclosure of banking secrecy, this is unlikely to be done at the legislative level.

Add

The National Bank of Ukraine has proposed for public discussion amendments to the Rules for the Storage, Protection, Use and Disclosure of Bank Secrecy, approved by the NBU Board Resolution of July 14, 2006.

According to the regulator, the changes are related to the need to bring the rules for storing, protecting, using and disclosing banking secrecy in line with the Law of Ukraine "On Banks and Banking Activities" and to improve the procedure for disclosing information constituting banking secrecy to the National Bank of Ukraine.

Recall

Dmytro Oleksiyenko , a member of the Board of ICC Ukraine, a member of the Board of the Association of Taxpayers of Ukraine, in a commentary to UNN noted that currently banking secrecy protects citizens' money on card accounts from the tax authorities, and the disclosure of banking secrecy will allow taxing everyone and everything. He noted that the National Revenue Strategy provides for the disclosure of banking secrecy, because now "there is no tool to tax everyone and everything, that is, there is no access to information - to cards and, accordingly, there is no tool to tax". Oleksiyenko also added that the destruction of the banking secrecy mechanism in Ukraine has been going on since 2019, and the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee, MP Danylo Hetmantsev, is behind it. The expert believes that this is Hetmantsev's dream.