West Virginia Code 31A-2B-4 – Protected financial information
A financial institution is prohibited from disclosing a customer’s protected financial information to a government entity and a government entity is prohibited from accessing or obtaining said information unless:
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 31A-2B-4
- assignment: refers to a financial institution policy, process, or practice that labels, links, or otherwise associates a firearms code with a merchant or payment card transaction in a manner that allows the financial institution or any other entity facilitating or processing the payment card transaction to identify whether a merchant is a firearms retailer or whether a transaction involves the sale of firearms, firearm accessories or components, or ammunition. See West Virginia Code 31A-2B-3
- Disclosure: means the transfer, publication, or distribution of protected financial information to another person for any purpose other than to process or facilitate a payment card transaction. See West Virginia Code 31A-2B-3
- Firearms code: means any code or other indicator a financial institution assigns to a merchant or to a payment card transaction that identifies whether a merchant is a firearms retailer or whether the payment card transaction involves the purchase of a firearm, firearm accessories or components, or ammunition. See West Virginia Code 31A-2B-3
- Government entity: means any state or local government agency or instrumentality thereof, located in West Virginia. See West Virginia Code 31A-2B-3
- Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
- Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
- Protected financial information: means any record of a sale, purchase, return, or refund involving a payment card that is retrieved, characterized, generated, labeled, sorted, or grouped based on the assignment of a firearms code. See West Virginia Code 31A-2B-3
- Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
(1) Disclosure is expressly permitted by § 31A-2A-4 of this code and the protected financial information is not singled out, segregated, or disclosed based on the assignment of a firearms code;
(2) Disclosure is made pursuant to a valid warrant issued in a criminal investigation, stating the grounds or probable cause for its issuance, and otherwise meeting the requirements of § 62-1A-3 of this code;
(3) The customer has provided written authorization for disclosure, according to the requirements of § 31A-2B-5 of this code;
(4) Disclosure is made pursuant to a subpoena meeting the requirements of §31A-2A-5 and § 31A-2B-6 of this code or to a grand jury subpoena meeting the requirements of § 31A-2A-6 of this code; or
(5) The financial institution discloses only the following information:
(A) That the financial institution is not in possession of the protected financial information; and
(B) The identity of the entity that is in possession of the requested protected financial information.