§ 30.007.Production of Financial Institution Records

A signpost, and an important one because the answer is where nobody looks for it.

Civil discovery of a customer record maintained by a financial institution is governed by Section 59.006, Finance Code.

The referenced provision is the exclusive method for obtaining such records in a civil case, and it displaces the ordinary discovery rules. It requires a record request served on the institution, notice to the customer, and a period in which the customer may object — and it entitles the institution to reimbursement of its costs.

The customer notice is the substance of it. Bank records reveal income, spending, associations, and location over time, and the person whose privacy is at stake is not a party to the request. The Finance Code procedure gives them a chance to object before the records move.

This section exists because a litigator would not otherwise find that. Someone planning discovery reads the rules of civil procedure and this code, not the Finance Code, and would issue an ordinary subpoena to the bank.

A subpoena that ignores the procedure is not merely inefficient. The institution is entitled to insist on the statutory method, so the request produces objection and delay rather than records.

Note that the section covers a customer record maintained by the institution, which is the institution’s own record of its customer — not, for instance, documents the customer holds and can be asked for directly.

The service provision earlier in this code deals with the related but distinct question of serving process on a financial institution.