Thousands back campaign to keep our banking details private

Added: (Thu Mar 08 2007)

Pressbox (Press Release) - THOUSANDS of bank customers have backed a campaign launched by checkmyfile.com to get the government to scrap its plan to allow the banks to share the account details of millions of bank customers with the credit reference agencies without those customers getting a chance to have their say.

The Government has put forward plans to change the law to allow the banks to share the current account details of 33 million bank customers with the credit reference agencies. These customers have not given their consent for this to happen, and the government’s plan would not allow them to have their say.

Thousands of bank customers have already signed a petition placed by checkmyfile.com on the government’s e-petitions website to give bank customers a chance to have their say on this issue: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/bankdatasharing

Barry Stamp, Joint Managing Director of checkmyfile.com, the UK’s leading online supplier of credit reports to UK consumers, says: “For the Government’s proposal to come into effect it would have to change the law in such a way that it would drive a coach and horses through consumer civil rights, data protection and banking confidentiality laws.”

Thirty three million bank customers are affected by the Government’s proposals. The privacy of their bank account details are currently protected by Data Protection and banking confidentiality laws, which state that a bank customer’s account details cannot be shared with others without their consent being sought first.

Barry Stamp adds: “For millions of people their bank account details are sacred and they would hate to think that other organisations had access to them without their consent.

“The Information Commissioner labelled the UK ‘Surveillance Britain’ and these plans would just add to that image, at a time when the UK public is looking for the government to protect our privacy, not erode it.”

Stamp adds that there are concerns our bank account details could eventually be routinely checked by public sector sources, such as HM Customs and Revenue, the Police or any government department. Currently there are well defined procedures in place to ensure such sources may only have access to bank account details for specific purposes and are geared in favour of consumer privacy.

The Government argues these proposals will help with responsible lending, but the government’s own figures say just 4 per cent of the adult population is affected by over-indebtedness and 53 per cent of households have no credit commitments at all.

Ends

Editors notes:

The Government has said in its consultation document: ‘Removal of barriers to the sharing of non-consensual credit data’ that it plans to allow banks to share the details of 40 million ‘non consensual accounts,’ of which 33 million are bank current accounts with the credit reference agencies without the need for account holders permission being sought first. These are accounts which were opened before the late 1990s, before bank account ‘terms and conditions’ contained standard ‘consent’ clauses for sharing account data with the credit reference agencies.

1) The Department for Trade and Industry public consultation: “Removal of Barriers to the Sharing of Non-consensual credit data.” is available at http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file34513.pdf

2) Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights states that:

a) Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.
b) There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Barry Stamp is Joint Managing Director of checkmyfile.com. He has wide experience of consumer and corporate credit, gained initially at NatWest and Barclays, then as Mortgage Manager of US insurer Lincoln National, Director and General Manager of Business Loans, Director of The National Mortgage Bank, Senior Executive at Bass and Director and General Manager of Experian. He is a member of the Institute of Credit Management (ICM) Technical Advisory Committee, which gives feedback to the Government on credit issues, and was Co-Chairman of the judging panel for the Credit Today Awards between 2000 and 2005. His published works include the legal and consumer credit chapters of ‘Tolley’s Effective Credit Control’, the industry acclaimed ‘Identity Theft – Prevention and Victim Assistance’ published by the CRA, Lawpack’s Identity Theft’ and ‘Advanced Credit Management’ published by the ICM. He is often consulted by members of the consumer credit industry on credit scoring matters and by the media on identity theft issues.