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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.”

If you need more information, please contact the ICO press office on 0303 123 9070 or visit the website at: www.ico.gov.uk.

2. The Information Commissioner’s Office upholds information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

3. 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.

4. The ICO is on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and produces a monthly e-newsletter.

Our For the media page provides more information for journalists.

5. Anyone who processes personal information must comply with eight principles of the Data Protection Act, which make sure that personal information is:

• Fairly and lawfully processed

• Processed for limited purposes

• Adequate, relevant and not excessive

• Accurate and up to date

• Not kept for longer than is necessary

• Processed in line with your rights

• Secure

• Not transferred to other countries without adequate protection