News release: 20 June 2011
Banks and other financial service providers need to do more to fulfil their legal obligations to give customers access to the information they hold about them, David Smith, Deputy Commissioner at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), said today.
Speaking at the British Banker’s Association conference, Mr Smith also announced that the financial sector has been identified as one of the ICO’s priority areas referred to in its draft Information Rights Strategy.
Deputy Commissioner, David Smith, said:
"The recent ruling about the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance will create a lot of work for the banks with many customers exercising their legal right to access the information that is held about them. I want to remind banks of the need to take this obligation seriously, providing full responses in a timely manner. We cannot have a repeat of the situation we were in two years ago when the unfair bank charges ruling took place. Our case workers were swamped with complaints from customers who hadn’t received a satisfactory response from the banks.
“Getting it right on data protection doesn’t just mean keeping data secure. The law also gives individuals an important right to remain in control of their information. We’ve identified the financial sector as one of our priority areas referred to in our draft Information Rights Strategy as we want to make sure financial services providers are doing all they can to comply with data protection law. While the number of upheld complaints is small compared to the millions of bank accounts in the UK, mishandling of financial information can have a serious effect on individuals’ lives.”
Notes to Editors
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The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) upholds information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.
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The ICO has specific responsibilities set out in the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.
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