The ECB
lacked initiative and moral leadership in its actions after finding
out that data was being transferred, said the Supervisor. His
office said that the ECB had known about the transfers since
February 2002.
"I basically challenge the fact that the ECB continued to allow
confidential client banking data to pass to the US although it had
become aware of the systematic access by American authorities,"
said Supervisor Peter Hustinx.
"Moreover, I cannot help feeling that the ECB should have at
least felt morally obliged to inform European governments and
authorities about this scheme," he said.
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications
(SWIFT) co-ordinates payments between international banks and has
been passing transaction details to US authorities since the
aftermath of terrorist attacks in America on 11th September
2001.
Europe's data protection commissioners will decide in the next
month whether to launch an investigation into SWIFT. Already the
Belgian privacy protection commissioner has said that the transfer
of transaction details broke European and Belgian privacy
rules.
SWIFT has said that it did not break the law but the Belgian
commission, which has produced the first report on the affair,
disagrees. "The Commission is of the opinion that SWIFT finds
itself in a conflict situation between American and European law
and that SWIFT at the least committed a number of errors of
judgement when dealing with the American subpoenas," said an
unofficial and temporary translation provided by the
Commission.
A statement from the office of the EDPS said that the ECB could
and should have done more to prevent the continuing potential
breach of privacy laws. "As to the role of the ECB as financial
overseer, the EDPS would have expected more initiative to bring
this arrangement – of which it was made aware in February 2002 – to
the notice of relevant authorities and responsible governments," it
said.
"As to the role of the ECB as a SWIFT customer, the EDPS could
not avoid feeling that it had accepted an inappropriate risk by
continuing to transfer financial data through SWIFT after becoming
aware of the arrangement with the US authorities," said the EDPS
statement.
