Court Opinion

ID: 9844693
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:06:49.893462+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:40.087462
License: Public Domain

SIMMS, Justice,
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent. The Financial Privacy Act was enacted to prevent the precise governmental invasion of bank customers’ rights of privacy which the majority allows here.
In our recent decision in Alva State Bank and Trust Co. v. Dayton, 755 P.2d 635 (Okla.1988), we struck down attempts by a district judge to compel a bank to produce non-party customers’ financial records for in camera inspection during discovery in private litigation. There we recognized that those records are confidential and that customers have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their bank records which are protected from all governmental authorities by our Financial Privacy Act. Those expectations are of constitutional dimension. See Nichols v. Council on Judicial Complaints, 615 P.2d 280 (Okla.1980), and the specially concurring opinion in Alva State Bank, supra, regarding Fourth Amendment and Okla. Const., art. 2, § 30 aspects of customers’ privacy rights. We noted in Alva State Bank as well as Nichols that the Act provides the exclusive lawful procedure for obtaining access to customers’ financial records and that strict compliance is necessary. That procedure, relied on by Lincoln here, requires either obtaining consent from the customer for the particular record or serving subpoenas which gives customers notice and affords them an opportunity to be heard in protest.
Section 2203 provides:
“A financial institution is prohibited from giving, releasing or disclosing any financial record to any governmental authority unless:
(a) it has written consent from the customer for the specific record requested; or
(b) it has been served with a subpoena issued pursuant to Section 4 [Section 2204 of this title] for the specific record requested.” (Emphasis added)
*1324Under our statutory scheme, the Oklahoma Banking Department, through the Board and Commissioner, is charged with supervising and regulating banks to insure compliance with all federal and state laws, including the Unclaimed Property Act, and is empowered with the authority to examine their records for compliance. 6 O.S.Supp.1985, § 201 et seq.
If the Tax Commission is in need of assistance in obtaining information pertaining to unclaimed property held by a financial institution, it should turn to the Banking Department, the legislatively mandated supervisory agency over all state banks and trust companies. The Banking Department contends that testimony before the trial court showed that no purpose is served by allowing the Tax Commission access to records, as the Banking Department does examine state banks for compliance with the Unclaimed Property Act and is better prepared to enforce those laws in cooperation with the Commission.
The creation of the Oklahoma Tax Commission as a “supervisory agency” over banks for this or any purpose is an ill-advised gratuity which will permit the Commission to have unbridled perusal of individual customers’ accounts. This power of the government to search through the private affairs and papers of its citizens is prohibited by the Financial Privacy Act, and the majority errs in holding otherwise.
I am authorized to state that Justice DOOLIN and Justice KAUGER join with me in the views expressed herein.