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Supplementary to question No. 1.
LegCo meeting.
16 July 1986
Mr. SOHMEN:
to
IS the Financial Secretary aware that there
appears
be no strict legal prohibition against banks
divulging information on their customers' accounts but this is
simply an implied term of the contract between the bank and its
client whose contractual provisions could, of course, be
amended to take away the reservations expressed by the
Financial Secretary ?
Financial Secretary:
is
me
SO
Sir, I am certainly now aware that there
an implied term in the contract because Mr. SOHMEN
SOHMEN has told
but whether, in fact, that implied term should be
altered by legislation is a very difficult question. As I have
said, we will have to take into account all the wider economic
considerations and, indeed, whether such legislation is
appropriate for Hong Kong today.
Mr Martin LEE:
Sir, would the Financial
Secretary kindly
elaborate on what he means by the last few words in his answer,
the wider economic considerations.
——
"
Financial Secretary: Yes, Sir, what I had in mind basically
was what effect any legislation that we might enact would have
on the attraction of Hong Kong as a financial centre.
moment, as Members know, Hong Kong is
people are allowed to move their
At the
a very open economy and