The Ethics of Banking: Conclusions from the Financial Crisis (Issues ...

116 8 The “Banking Secret”, the Right to Privacy, and the Banks’ Duty to Confidentiality
Barriers to information about the private sphere and barriers to undue transparency
are often the best way to nip resentment in the bud. These are strategies
for resentment-avoidance. Precisely when resentment and envy threaten to dominate
entire groups and goad them into hostility toward minorities or members of
other nationalities, defending the groups that come under attack from unjustified
exposure to transparency and protecting their private sphere is the only way of containing
and controlling resentment and envy. This control of envy is another of the
functions of banking secrecy.