Confidentiality Policy
Last Reviewed On: March 04, 2023 (Version 3.0)
- The
objective of this policy is to protect confidential and/or material
non-public information, including confidential information received from
an entity rated/proposed to be rated and non-public information about a
credit rating action (e.g., information about a credit rating action
before the credit rating is publicly disclosed or disseminated to public).
- Acuité
and its access
persons and employees are prohibited from using or disclosing
confidential and/or material non-public information for any purpose
unrelated to Acuité’s credit rating activities, including disclosing such
information to other access
persons or employees where the disclosure is not necessary in
connection with Acuité’s credit rating activities.
- Acuité
and its access
persons and employees shall take reasonable steps to protect
confidential and/or material non-public information from fraud, theft,
misuse, or inadvertent disclosure.
- With
respect to confidential information received from a rated entity, Acuité
and its access
persons and employees are prohibited from using or disclosing such
information in violation of the terms of any applicable agreement or
mutual understanding that Acuité will keep the information confidential.
- Acuité
and its access
persons and employees are prohibited from selectively disclosing
information about an unpublished credit rating action, except to the rated
entity.
- Acuité
prohibits its access
persons and employees who possess confidential and/or material
non-public information to disclose such information to anyone other than a
Acuité access person
or employee involved in the rating process strictly on a
need-to-know basis. Acuité access persons or employees are not allowed to use such
information for personal gain.
- Notwithstanding
the above, Acuité and its access persons and employees reserve the right to disclose
confidential/material non-public information, in their possession, to the
Regulatory / Statutory authorities such as Securities and Exchange Board
of India (SEBI), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) / Government, including, but
not limited to, a Court of Law, when required to do so under any applicable
law or regulation.
- This
policy is complementary to the Analytic Firewall Rules, Document Archival
policy and the clear desk and clear screen policy currently in force and /
or that may be adopted by Acuité from time to time.
- This
policy is location agnostic and applicable to access persons and employees
whether working from office or remotely (such as working from home).
- This policy is complementary to "Policy on Outsourcing of Activities”