SWIFT Move Against Terrorist Finances
- July 11th, 2010
- Posted by 7thmin
The European Parliament has approved new rules (8.7.10)Â to allow counter-terrorism authorities in America to monitor trans-Atlantic financial transfers using the SWIFT banking system.
The vote, 484 to 109 with 12 abstentions, approved procedures for exposing transfers between the European Union and outside countries.
It cleared up objections that held up the agreement for lengthy periods, by approving also the construction of a European data processing system that precludes the need for data to be transferred in bulk to the United States.
Work on that is to start before the end of this year.
The agreement on SWIFT will assist in tracing the activities of terrorist groups, by monitoring their finances.
Some signal successes in counter-terrorism operations have been attributed to that approach, notably detecting a group planning to use liquid explosives against seven trans-Atlantic airliners in 2006.
Reference
European Parliament, Strasbourg,â€Parliament gives green light for SWIFT IIâ€, 8.7.10. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/focus_page/ …, (10.7.10).
See also, EUAustralia, “Settlement near on SWIFT banking and terror checksâ€, 6.7.1