President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom Monday stressed on the need for banks to protect sensitive and sensitive information insisting that such leaks would not be tolerated.
Speaking after inaugurating a colloquium named 'Doing Business in Maldives - A Judicial Perspective' president Yameen said that it has become easy for employees to leak information about customers, and that this is being carried out in the Maldives noting that it would lead to mistrust in banks if it continues.
"Our private transactions are being leaked to the public, the information is being leaked somehow. How are these things happening, how is this information being leaked, to become the topic of everyone's discussion," the President said.
"Due to this, many people are preferring to liquidate their money and keep it on hand, and the credibility of the banking system is being put into question. We are working to find out if the transactions between people are legal, but it has become easy to leak information on any transactions, from every bank."
The President said such transgressions are an added burden for the government to gain investor confidence.
President was indirectly referring to the senior bank official sentenced to prison after leaking documents related to a private company linked to the largest corruption scandal in the history of the archipelago.
Gasim Abdul Kareem, a former assistant manager at the Bank of Maldives’ Faafu Atoll Nilandhoo Branch who was arrested in February was sentenced to eight months and 12 days in prison after he was found guilty of illegally disclosing private information.
However, he was later released on sentence credit as he had been remanded longer than his prison sentence.
The President also said that an arrest warrant has also been forged in this country seeking the arrest of the President, and that this is not something that could be mimicked in another country.
"In which country would some one forge a warrant ordering the arrest of the head of state, and go out and try to implement it. This has happened in Maldives, the ideal Maldives, and it will happen again," President Yameen said.
He stated that this was the reason for the flailing trust in these institutions, and that if incidents like keep repeating, than it would decrease the prestige earned by the Maldives. The President gave this as the reason foreign trust was falling in the Maldives.
The false arrest warrant was created by a Magistrate of an island court, Ahmed Nihan and the former Prosecutor General Muhuthaz Muhusin. Both of them have been convicted and sentenced to prison.
