EU, US reach preliminary deal on SWIFT data - EU

BRUSSELS, June 20 (Reuters) The EU and the United States have reached a preliminary deal on how US authorities can consult data from the international banking network SWIFT in anti-terror investigations, an EU spokesman said today.

''We have a draft agreement,'' Friso Roscam Abbing, spokesman for EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said of an accord aimed at allaying European data privacy concerns.

''What I really hope is that we can conclude this in the next one or two weeks.'' Roscam Abbing did not give details but said the deal included provisions on data protection. ''Then it is for SWIFT and for the banks to do their share in informing in advance their customers about providing the data,'' he said.

US officials could not confirm if a preliminary deal had been reached. One said: ''The process for reaching a final deal is still ongoing.'' EU and Belgian watchdogs said last year Brussels-based SWIFT broke privacy laws by letting the US Treasury Department secretly consult its records in terrorism investigations after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

SWIFT, which handles global financial transfers, is a cooperative owned by roughly 7,800 financial institutions in the more than 200 countries that use it. It says it was bound to obey a US subpoena to transfer the data.

A spokesman for SWIFT said the company, which does not take part in the talks, could comment only when it sees the details of a final deal.

SWIFT announced last week it had decided to modify its messaging architecture to ensure that intra-European data be stored only in Europe, and not in the United States. It said it hoped that would allay data privacy concerns.

SWIFT's board is due to approve final details of that plan in September, said Euan Sellar, spokesman for SWIFT.

Brussels and Washington are also in talks to replace an interim deal on the transfer to the United States of private data on transatlantic air passengers.

Roscam Abbing said there remained political and technical issues to be solved and the EU hoped for a deal by the end of the month.

Reuters RS DB2140