AUTOMATISIERTE KONTOABFRAGEN UND BANKGEHEIMNIS

German credit institutions have the duty of banking confi dentiality, i.e. they are obliged not to divulge their clients’ credit and fi nancial circumstances and to deny queries in general. Banking confi dentiality is not specifi cally regulated by law, but the prevalent view is that banking confi dentiality is deducible from the general banking contract. Th e exceptions to this disclosure ban are allowed only if there is a legal requirement, or with the account holder’s consent. Automatic queries into master fi le data of a bank account are a breach of banking confi dentiality. In this way banking confi dentiality in Germany is being further weakened and systematically eroded.