(a) Except in accordance with requirements of Title 11 (commencing with Section 14160) of Part 4 of the Penal Code or Section 7473, 7474, 7475, or 7476, no financial institution, or any director, officer, employee, or agent of a financial institution, may provide or authorize another to provide to an officer, employee, or agent of a state or local agency or department thereof, any financial records, copies thereof, or the information contained therein, if the director, officer, employee, or agent of the financial institution knows or has reasonable cause to believe that the financial records or information are being requested in connection with a civil or criminal investigation of the customer, whether or not an investigation is being conducted pursuant to formal judicial or administrative proceedings.
(b) This section is not intended to prohibit disclosure of the financial records of a customer or the information contained therein incidental to a transaction in the normal course of business of a financial institution if the director, officer, employee, or agent thereof making or authorizing the disclosure has no reasonable cause to believe that the financial records or the information contained in the financial records so disclosed will be used by a state or local agency or department thereof in connection with an investigation of the customer, whether or not an investigation is being conducted pursuant to formal judicial or administrative proceedings.
(c) This section shall not preclude a financial institution, in its discretion, from initiating contact with, and thereafter communicating with and disclosing customer financial records to, appropriate state or local agencies concerning suspected violation of any law.
(d) A financial institution that refuses to disclose the financial records of a customer, copies thereof, or the information contained therein, in reliance in good faith upon the prohibitions of subdivision (a), or discloses the financial records of a customer, copies thereof, or the information contained therein, in reliance in good faith upon subdivision (c), subdivision (d) of Section 7470, or subdivision (b) of Section 14164 of the Penal Code, shall not be liable to its customer, to a state or local agency, or to any other person for any loss or damage caused in whole or in part by the refusal or the disclosure.
(Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 757, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1999.)
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