Duty of confidentiality

(1) Persons employed at BaFin, and persons engaged under section 4(3) of the Financial Services Supervision Act, may not, without authorisation, disclose or use facts that have come to their knowledge in the course of their activity and whose confidentiality is in the interest of a person obliged under this Act, of the competent authorities, or of a third party, in particular business and trade secrets and personal data, even after they have left the service or their activity has ended. This also applies to other persons who obtain knowledge of the facts named in the first sentence through official reporting. Unauthorised disclosure or use within the meaning of the first sentence does not in particular exist where facts are passed on to
1. prosecuting authorities or the courts competent for criminal and regulatory-fine matters,
2. bodies entrusted by statute or by public mandate with the supervision of exchanges or other markets on which financial instruments are traded, of trading in financial instruments or foreign exchange, of credit institutions, financial services institutions, investment firms, investment companies, financial undertakings, financial investment brokers or insurance undertakings, and persons engaged by such bodies, insofar as these bodies need the information to perform their tasks. The duty of confidentiality under the first sentence applies accordingly to persons employed at those bodies. Facts may be passed on to a body of another state only where that body and the persons engaged by it are subject to a duty of confidentiality corresponding to the first sentence.
(2) Sections 93, 97 and 105(1), section 111(5) in conjunction with section 105(1), and section 116(1) of the Fiscal Code apply to the persons named in subsection (1), first and second sentences only insofar as the tax authorities need the knowledge for conducting proceedings concerning a tax offence or a taxation procedure, unless other provisions preclude the passing on of the information. The provisions named in the first sentence do not, however, apply insofar as facts are concerned
1. that were communicated to the persons named in subsection (1), first or second sentence by a body of another state within the meaning of subsection (1), third sentence, no. 2, or by persons engaged by that body, or
2. of which persons employed at BaFin gain knowledge through their involvement in the supervision of institutions directly supervised by the European Central Bank, in particular in joint supervisory teams under Article 2 no. 6 of Regulation (EU) No 468/2014 of the European Central Bank of 16 April 2014 establishing the framework for cooperation within the Single Supervisory Mechanism between the European Central Bank and national competent authorities and with national designated authorities (SSM Framework Regulation) (ECB/2014/17) (OJ L 141, 14.5.2014, p. 1), and that are confidential under the rules of the European Central Bank.