SWIFT CEO addresses the EU Parliament

SWIFT CEO addresses the EU Parliament

SWIFT stresses to EU Parliament that the principles of robust data protection and legal certainty must remain constant.

Published on September 3, 2009

The following statement is also available in German.

SWIFT CEO Lázaro Campos told EU Parliamentarians today, "whatever the outcome of the current discussions about the use of data for counter-terrorism purposes, what we must not jeopardize are the protections which exist today for citizens' data, the certainty of the legal framework within which companies operate and the commercial level playing field."

Mr Campos was also keen to emphasise that the debate is not about SWIFT, but about how Europe plans to cooperate with the US for counter-terrorism purposes. "SWIFT is affected by this debate but should not be singled out nor treated differently from any other European company," said Mr Campos.

Mr Campos was speaking at a joint hearing of the EU's LIBE and ECON committees on a new interim agreement under which the US will gain access to European financial messaging data necessary to the US Treasury Department's (UST) Terrorist Finance Tracking Program. The agreement may apply to SWIFT message data located in Europe.

"In the case of the US Treasury subpoenas, SWIFT established protections for the subpoenaed data, protections which have been recognised as ground breaking - and are now cited as best practice", said Mr Campos. "In the case of a new arrangement between the EU and US, these safeguards must not be compromised." [MORE]