Bankers not punished for looking up details of suspect in Utrecht tram attack

On the day of a terrorist attack on a tram in Utrecht, seven bank employees looked up the details of the suspected terrorist in the bank systems, thereby violating the bankers' oath. The Banks Disciplinary Commission on Tuesday decided not to punish them for this, because of the special circumstances involved, RTV Utrecht reports.

After the attack on 18 March 2019, the police spread suspect Gokmen T.'s full name and age in an attempt to track him down. The seven bank employees looked him up on their bank's systems, to find his address. According to the bankers' oath, bank employees are not allowed to just access customers' personal information.

The prosecutor requested that six of the seven employees receive an official reprimand, but the disciplinary committee thought it sufficient to just find them guilty of violating the oath. According to the committee, the attack led to a "nationally very tense situation", and the bankers indicated that they thought they could help the police with the information they sought.

The seventh employee was banned from operating as a banker for six weeks. This was not because she looked up Gokmen T.'s details on the day of the terrorist attack, but because investigation showed that she searched account data much more often. The bank she worked at already dismissed her for this.