BRUSSELS (AP) — An EU panel of data-protection officers has concluded that bank-data transfer agency SWIFT broke privacy laws by handing over personal data to U.S. authorities for use in anti-terror investigations, officials of the European Union said yesterday.
The panel’s report calls on the Belgian-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, as well as financial institutions and EU authorities, to “take the necessary measures” to end the transfer.
A Belgian commission, which was tasked by the Belgian government and the EU panel to investigate SWIFT’S secret deal with the U.S. Treasury Department, earlier came to the same conclusion.
The European Commission, which could begin a legal case against Belgium over failure to uphold EU data-protection rules, has said it would await the final report of the EU data-protection officers before deciding what action to take.
SWIFT routes about 11 million financial transactions daily among 7,800 banks and other financial institutions in 200 countries, recording customer names, account numbers and other identifying information.
SWIFT officials have argued that it had no choice but to abide by U.S. subpoenas for bank data, saying that if it had refused to hand over the information, it could have faced fines and criminal penalties, such as jail time.
Belgian political leaders have called on the European Union to negotiate with the United States on fixing the apparent legal limbo in which SWIFT finds itself.
The transfer deal between the U.S. Treasury and SWIFT was begun by Washington after the September 11 attacks.
The SWIFT case compounds legal and political clashes between Europe and the United States over anti-terror measures and highlights divisions over what lengths governments should go to in order to prevent attacks.
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