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EU Extends Bank Data Sharing Agreement With U.S.
By Colby Adams
printThe EU Council passed a controversial agreement Monday to extend the access of U.S. counterterrorism investigators to European financial data by another nine months. The accord, opposed by privacy advocates, extends a June 2007 informal arrangement between the United States Treasury Department and European Union over when terrorist investigators can gain access to interbank transaction data processed by the Brussels-based banking consortium the Society for World Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift). Under the new agreement, EU member-nations will wield decision-making power on what Swift data the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) investigators may see under Europe's data...
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