The European Parliament adopted by 571 votes to 18, with 17 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive (EU) 2019/1153 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as regards access of competent authorities to centralised bank account registries through the single access point.

The European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure amends the proposal as follows:

Objectives of the Directive

The proposed Directive aims to empower competent authorities designated under Directive (EU) 2019/1153 to access and search the centralised bank account registries of other Member States through the bank account registers interconnection system (BARIS) and to facilitate the use of transaction records by competent authorities for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of serious criminal offences.

The Directive lays down:

- measures to facilitate access to and the use of financial information and bank account information by competent authorities for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of serious criminal offences;

- measures to facilitate access to law enforcement information by Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) for the prevention and combating of money laundering, associate predicate offences and terrorist financing and measures to facilitate cooperation between FIUs; and

- technical measures to facilitate the use of transaction records by competent authorities for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of serious criminal offences.

Access to and searches of bank account information by competent authorities

The amended text stated that a Member State may limit the power to access and search bank account information through the BARIS to situations in which its competent national authorities designated have justified reasons to believe that there might be relevant bank account information in other Member States.

Bank account information obtained by means of accessing and searching the BARIS should be processed only for the purpose for which it was collected .

Access and searches should be considered to be direct and immediate, inter alia , where the national authorities operating the central bank account registries transmit the bank account information expeditiously by an automated mechanism to competent authorities, provided that no intermediary institution is able to interfere with the requested data or the information to be provided.

Access and searches should be without prejudice to national procedural safeguards and Union and national rules on the protection of personal data.

Access to and searches of bank account information should be performed only on a case-by-case basis by the staff of each competent authority that have been specifically designated and authorised to perform those tasks.

Transaction records

Transaction records provide crucial information for criminal investigations. However, financial investigations are hampered by the fact that financial institutions and credit institutions, including crypto-asset service providers, provide authorities competent for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences with transaction records in different formats, which are not immediately ready for analysis.

In order to improve the capacity of competent authorities to carry out financial investigations, this Directive sets out measures to ensure that financial institutions and credit institutions across the Union, including crypto-asset service providers, provide transaction records in a format that is easy for competent authorities to process and analyse. The Commission is empowered to adopt, by means of implementing acts, technical specifications in order to establish the electronic structured format and technical means to be used for providing transaction records.

The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the report by Emil RADEV (EPP, BG) on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive (EU) 2019/1153 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as regards access of competent authorities to centralised bank account registries through the single access point.

The proposed amendment to Directive (EU) 2019/1153 would allow clearly designated competent authorities responsible for the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences to access and search the interconnected system of centralised bank account registers through the bank account registers (BAR) single access point.

The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:

Members specify that national competent authorities should have the power to access and search information on bank accounts in other Member States where they have justified reasons to consider that relevant information on bank accounts necessary for the performance of their tasks might exist in other Member States.

Data gathered as a result of accessing or searching bank account information through the BAR single access point should be adequate and relevant for the purposes for which they are sought and should not be excessive for those purposes.

Competent authorities would only be able to carry out searches if the national competent authorities are able to carry out such searches in the national register under the same conditions as in a similar domestic case.

Furthermore, when accessing and searching information available in other Member States through the BAR single point of access, those competent authorities should respect the procedural rights of individuals as well as national and Union rules on the protection of personal data .

Lastly, the staff of the designated competent authorities having access through BAR single access point should maintain high professional standards of confidentiality and data protection, are of high integrity and are appropriately skilled.

PURPOSE: to provide competent authorities with access to centralised registers of bank accounts through the single access point.

PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: illegal revenues generated by criminal activities in the EU amounted to EUR 139 billion in 2019, corresponding to 1% of its gross domestic product. Swift access to financial information is key to effective financial investigations and successfully tracing and confiscating the instrumentalities and proceeds of crime.

In order for competent authorities in one Member State to obtain information on subjects of an investigation who hold bank accounts in another Member State, they currently have to collect the information via police cooperation or judicial cooperation channels. This is an often burdensome and time-consuming process that hampers speedy access to the information.

Under the Commission's proposal for a new anti-money laundering Directive (presented alongside this proposal), Member States will have to ensure that information obtained from centralised bank accounts registries is available through the bank account registers (BAR) single access points be developed and operated by the Commission. However, the new anti-money laundering directive will provide access to the BAR single access point only to financial intelligence units (FIUs).

In the interest of combatting serious crime and, in particular, carrying out effective financial investigation authorities competent for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences also need to have access to the BAR single access point allowing them to identify, analyse and interpret the financial information relevant for criminal proceedings.

In its resolution of 10 July 2020, the European Parliament welcomed the Commission's plan to ensure the interconnection of centralised bank accounts registries in order to speed up access to financial information for law enforcement authorities’ and FIUs’ access to financial information in different investigation phases and facilitate cross-border cooperation in full compliance with applicable data protection rules.

CONTENT: the proposed amendment to Directive (EU) 2019/1153 would allow clearly designated competent authorities responsible for the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences to access and search the interconnected system of centralised bank account registers through the BAR single access point. This would allow them to establish quickly whether an individual holds bank accounts in other Member States without having to ask all their counterparts in all Member States.