EU backs anti-terror deal with US on bank data

Brussels, June 27: The European Union today approved a deal setting conditions for the US Treasury Department to consult records of the international banking network SWIFT in anti-terror probes, EU diplomats said.

''We agreed on SWIFT,'' a diplomat said of an accord aimed at allaying European data privacy concerns over the US fight against terrorism.

EU and Belgian privacy watchdogs said last year SWIFT broke European privacy laws by allowing the U.S. Treasury Department secretly to consult its records in terrorism probes after the Sept.

11, 2001 attacks on the United States, a practice first revealed by the New York Times.

Washington said the access was essential for its global drive to dry up funding sources for suspected extremist cells.

Brussels-based SWIFT said its US office was obliged to obey US subpoenas.

Since then, EU and US officials have worked to find arrangements acceptable to both sides.

Under the deal backed by EU ambassadors today, to be rubber-stamped by ministers tomorrow, data would be kept for a maximum of five years and the United States could only use it for counter-terrorism purposes, a diplomat said.

A senior European official would be appointed to monitor how the data is used.

To satisfy US conditions, these arrangements take the form of unilateral US commitments spelled out in a letter, the diplomat said.

SWIFT, which handles global financial transfers, is a cooperative owned by roughly 7,800 financial institutions in more than 200 countries that use it.

Reuters>