November 24, 2006	Friday	Ziqa'ad 2, 1427

BRUSSELS, Nov 23: EU authorities have found that the Belgian-based financial group SWIFT broke EU privacy rules by passing on data to the United States, the European Commission said Thursday, urging action to fix the situation.

European Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen said that EU authorities in charge of data protection had unanimously found SWIFT responsible for “violations” of EU law.

SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, based outside Brussels, deals with trillions of dollars in global transactions daily between nearly 8,000 financial institutions in 200-plus countries.

The company admitted in June that it had provided US authorities with a “limited” amount of data in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks in 2001 but insisted it had done its utmost to protect privacy.

Under EU data protection rules, information on money transfers can be used only for banking purposes, and not for other uses, such as investigating terrorism financing.

“Swift is requested, along with the financial institutions, to take the necessary steps immediately to remedy the present illegal infringement,” the commission spokeswoman said.—AFP