Bahraini banks may risk of facing hefty fine if non-compliant with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Non-compliance with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) may leave Bahraini banks with the risk of facing hefty fines, warned a top legal expert.

“Fines of up to 4 per cent of annual global turnover for breaching GDPR or EUR20 Million (BD89,07,639.62), whichever the greater will be created, as a result,” said Dr Abulqader Warsma Ghaleb during a seminar held by Bahrain Association of Banks (BAB) at the headquarters of Al Baraka Banking Group.

The legal counsel and senior director of legal affairs at BBK also said this is beside the “bank’s loss of credibility and contracts in the EU.” Effective 15 May 2018, GDPR is a sweeping and stringent European Union (EU) wide legal framework for protecting personal data privacy.

Besides transparency, the GDPR provides citizens more control on how their data is used. Article 17 lists conditions under which they will be able to request the deletion of their data from business databases, or the so-called “right of erasure”.