The Presidents/ Chief Executives
All Banks/NBFIs.
Dear
Sirs/Madam,
CONFIDENTIALITY
/ SECRECY OF SBP INSPECTION REPORTS-VIOLATION OF
Your
attention is drawn to para 46A of the State Bank of Pakistan
Act, 1956 as amended from time to time that reads as under:
-
“Production
of unpublished record of bank, etc.
(1)
No court tribunal or other authority shall be entitled to
compel the bank or any person in the service of the bank
to produce or, as the case may be, give any evidence derived
from, any unpublished record of the bank.
(2)
No court, tribunal or other authority shall permit
any one to produce or give evidence derived from, any unpublished
record of the Bank, except with the prior permission in
writing of the Governor who may give or withhold such permission
as he thinks fit.
(3)
Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or any other
law for the time being in force, a report prepared by the
Bank on a banking company under Section 40 of the Banking
Companies Ordinance, 1962 (LVII of 1962), shall be deemed
to be unpublished for the purposes of sub-section (1) and
(2) even if a copy of such report has been supplied to the
banking company to which the report pertains or to the Federal
Government or to the Pakistan Banking Council constituted
under Section 9 of the Banks (Nationalization) Act, 1974
(Act XIX of 1974).”
2.
In this regard, the preamble to the on-site inspection
reports of banks and financial institutions conducted by
SBP under Section 40 of the Banking Companies Ordinance,
1962, also stipulates as follows: -
”This
report is the property of the State Bank of Pakistan for
use in its supervisory responsibilities. This report is
furnished to the inspected bank for its confidential use.
This report is strictly confidential, and the State Bank
of Pakistan forbids its disclosure in any manner without
its prior permission. Under no circumstances should the
bank or any of its board members, directors, officers, or
staff discloses or make public in any manner this report
or any portion thereof.”
3.
However, it has been observed lately that some of the banks
to whom the inspection reports or their drafts were dispatched
in a sealed cover by the State Bank are not meticulously
complying with these instructions. Instances have come to
notice where some of the banks have not been able to maintain
confidentiality with respect to the contents of the inspection
reports and unauthorized employees have succeeded in breaching
the secrecy/confidentiality thereof with serious implications.
4.
In order to effectively check recurrence of such instances
and ensure that the access to the contents of the inspection
reports is strictly limited to the authorized persons/executives/officers
of the banks only, you are advised to devise and put in
place an effective and foolproof system in this regard at
the earliest under intimation to the undersigned.
Please
acknowledge receipt.