Banking secrecy: the relationship of public and private interest in the detection of tax and other economic crimes

A kind of public (state) interest is the effective counteraction of crime, the identification of facts of tax evasion. One of the means of its (public interest) implementation is the granting of the right to a number of state bodies to receive information on transactions, accounts, deposits of legal entities, citizens, including those engaged in entrepreneurial activity. When applying to the officials of state bodies specified in the law, credit organizations provide the required information, thereby limiting private interest and giving rise to the problem of balancing private and public interests. The article reveals the content of the problem of the correlation of private and public (state) interests in the disclosure by credit institutions of information about accounts, deposits, depositors’ transactions. The problem being solved. On the basis of a critical analysis, an assessment is given of the established limits of satisfaction of the state interest in obtaining information about accounts, deposits and transactions with minimal restriction of personal interest in this matter. Research methods: within the framework of a systematic approach, the axiological (value) method, methods of comparative legal and legal-technical analysis are used. Conclusion. In matters of disclosure of information about accounts and transactions, the legislator is trying to achieve a legally fixed provision that investigative bodies cannot initiate criminal proceedings on the grounds of tax crimes on the basis of materials submitted by a wide range of state bodies, with the exception of a single tax authority.