Vietnam: When can you request other people's account statements?

Vietnam: When can you request other people's account statements? (Illustration)

According to current regulations of law, a bank statement is information about a customer's transaction with a credit institution, including customer identification information and the following information: transaction documents, time of delivery transaction, transaction number, transaction value, transaction balance, and other relevant information. This is customer information of a credit institution as specified in Clause 1, Article 3 of Decree 117/2018/ND-CP and is information that the bank is responsible for keeping confidential and providing only in accordance with regulations of the Law on Credit Institutions 2010, amended in 2017, this Decree and relevant laws.

Therefore, the bank is only allowed to provide customer account statement information when requested by the customer or provided to other individuals or organizations that have the authority to request the bank to provide customer information according to regulations of the law.

On the other hand, Article 10 of Vietnam's Decree 117/2018/ND-CP stipulates that only 10 groups of individuals from the following agencies have the authority to request the Bank to provide customer account statement information, including:

1. Inspector-General or Deputy Inspector-General; Chief Inspector of Ministry or Deputy Chief Inspectors of Ministry; Chief Inspectors of provinces or Deputy Chief Inspectors of provinces; Chief Inspectors of Departments or Deputy Chief Inspectors of Departments; Chief Inspectors of districts or Deputy Chief Inspectors of districts, heads or deputy heads of agencies assigned to carry out specialized inspection, heads of inspectorates; members of inspectorates prescribed by the law on inspection.

2. State Auditor General or Deputy State Auditor General, chief auditors of specialized state audit units or local state audit units, chiefs of audit delegations, leaders of auditor teams, members of the audit delegation that are state auditors prescribed by the law on State Audit Office of Vietnam.

3. Chief Procurators or Deputy Chief Procurators, procurators of People’s Procuracies at all levels, military procuracies at all levels prescribed by the laws on People’s Procuracies.

4. Chief Justices, Deputy Chief Justices, judges and examiners of Supreme People’s Courts, Superior People’s Courts, People’s Courts of provinces and central-affiliated cities, People’s Courts of districts and equivalent, Central Military Court, military courts of military zones and the equivalent, regional military courts prescribed by the laws on courts.

5. Chiefs, deputies and investigators of investigating authorities within the system of investigating authorities; chief and deputies of investigating authorities assigned to investigate as prescribed by the laws on investigating authorities.

6. Chiefs or deputies of professional agencies in the People’s Public Security force and the People’s Army within the power prescribed by the laws on People’s Public Security Forces and People’s Army.

7. Heads or deputy heads of judgment enforcement authorities, bailiffs that are enforcing judgments as prescribed by the law on judgment enforcement.

8. General Director or Deputy General Directors of the General Department of Customs; Director or Deputy Directors of Anti-smuggling and Investigation Department; Director or Deputy Directors of Post Clearance Audit Department; Directors or Deputy Directors of Departments of Customs of provinces, inter-provinces and cities; Directors or Deputy Directors of Sub-departments of Customs; Directors or Deputy Directors of Post Clearance Audit Sub-departments prescribed by the laws on customs.

9. General Director or Deputy General Directors of the General Department of Taxation; Director or Deputy Directors of Departments of Inspection of General Department of Taxation; Director or Deputy Directors of Taxation Departments; Directors or Deputy Directors of Taxation Sub-departments prescribed by the laws on tax administration.

10. Other individuals of regulatory authorities prescribed by a relevant law having the power to sign regulatory authorities’ application form for provision of client information submitted to credit institutions and foreign banks’ branches.

All 10 groups of individuals of the above agencies must follow the order and procedures specified in very specific detail in Article 8, Article 9 of Decree 117/2018/ND-CP when requesting banks to provide customer statement information.

Thus, it can be seen that, if you are an individual who is not the owner of that bank account and also do not belong to one of the 10 groups of individuals that the competent authorities require the bank to provide customer information as mentioned above, you have absolutely no right to ask the bank to provide other people's bank account statement information.

Currently, the account statement method is deployed by banks in two main forms. That is an in-person statement and an online statement.

- Direct bank account statement

This form of statement is made in case there is a request from the cardholder for the bank to print the statement and confirm the transaction history on the card. When the statement is completed, it will include an endorsement from the bank for legal validity to supplement the necessary administrative records and procedures.

- Online bank account statement

This form of statement is applicable to cardholders who use Internet Banking services. Conducting account statements by this online method is usually quite quick and accurate when you want to track transaction history on the card. However, the limitation of the online statement is that it does not allow cardholders to correct or add to records or administrative procedures. In addition, payment accounts will be supported to print statements right at the ATM.

Bao Ngoc

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