European Parliament Nixes Agreement with US Over SWIFT

In a controversial step within a long-standing dispute, the European Parliament has rejected an interim agreement between its government bureaucracy and the US government over the transfer of bank data to the US from the Brussels-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). The European Parliament was flexing new powers granted to it under the Treaty of Lisbon regarding internal security and counter-terrorism matters. And while some commentators have repeated concerns that barring US access to SWIFT data will hamper anti-terrorism efforts and create a so-called “security gap”, others point out that EU member states already provide the US with data similar to SWIFT’s data, based on bilateral agreements As previously reported by E-TIPS® (“SWIFT Banks Did Not Breach Canadian Law, Says Privacy Commissioner” Vol 5, No 20, April 11, 2007), Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has held that the principal six Canadian banks did not violate Canadian law by disclosing customer data via SWIFT to US authorities. For a news report from the Washington Post, see: http://tinyurl.com/y9ggqa7 For a copy of the press release from the European Parliament, visit: http://tinyurl.com/ydtjos3 Summary by: Richard Potter