Duty of confidentiality

(1) Persons employed at the Bundesanstalt, and persons commissioned 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 are no longer in service or their activity has ended. This also applies to other persons who obtain knowledge of the facts referred to in the first sentence through official reporting. There is in particular no unauthorised disclosure or use within the meaning of the first sentence where facts are passed on to 1. prosecuting authorities or courts competent for criminal and regulatory-fine matters, 2. bodies entrusted, by law or on 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, securities institutions, management companies, externally managed investment companies, EU management companies or foreign AIF management companies, financial undertakings, insurance undertakings, insurance intermediaries, undertakings within the meaning of section 3(1), no. 7, or employees within the meaning of section 87(1) to (5), and persons commissioned by those bodies, 3. central banks in their capacity as monetary authorities, and other state authorities entrusted with the supervision of payment systems, 4. bodies dealing with the liquidation or insolvency proceedings over the assets of an investment services undertaking, a regulated market, or the operator of a regulated market, 5. the European Central Bank, the European System of Central Banks, the European Securities and Markets Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, the European Banking Authority, the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities, the European Systemic Risk Board, or the European Commission, 7. competent authorities within the meaning of Article 2(1), letter r) of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503, insofar as those bodies need the information to perform their tasks. For persons employed at the bodies referred to in the third sentence, numbers 1 to 4, and persons commissioned by those bodies, the duty of confidentiality under the first sentence applies correspondingly. Where a body referred to in the third sentence, numbers 1 to 4, is situated in another state, the facts may be passed on only where the persons employed at, and commissioned by, that body 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 referred to 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 disclosure of the information. The provisions referred to in the first sentence do not apply, however, insofar as facts are concerned 1. that have been communicated to the persons referred to 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 commissioned by that body, or 2. of which persons employed at the Bundesanstalt obtain knowledge through their participation in the supervision of institutions directly supervised by the European Central Bank, in particular in joint supervisory teams under Article 2, point 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.