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The Law of 5 April 1993 on the financial sector, as amended, stipulates that all administrators, members of managing and supervisory bodies, directors, employees and other persons in the service of credit institutions, and other professionals of the financial sector, are required to keep secret any information confided to them in the context of their professional activities. The same is true for people working in the insurance sector.

Disclosure of such information is punishable as laid down in the Penal Code.

The obligation to maintain secrecy is, nevertheless, not absolute. It ceases to exist where disclosure of information is authorised or required by or pursuant to a legislative provision.

This is the case, for example, where the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism is concerned. The law requires individuals concerned to report to the State Prosecutor any fact that could indicate the presence of money laundering.

Luxembourg has taken strict legal measures to prevent the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (AML). The most recent of these measures was the transposition into national law of the European Directive in this area, with the Law of 17 July 2008. This law extended the scope of application of AML measures to include fiduciary (trust) and company service providers, insurance intermediaries and all traders in goods for cash transactions of 15,000 euros or more.

The law subjects the targeted professionals to rigorous obligations with respect to the customer. These include customer identification and, where relevant, identification of the beneficiary of a transaction or activity.

The financial supervisory authority (CSSF) and the Commissariat aux assurances (CAA) are responsible for overseeing that AML obligations for all professionals in the financial sector are rigorously complied with.