The Swift network processes international fund transfers in Australia for the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac Banking Corp. and ANZ National Bank Ltd.

The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, the independent EU advisory body on data protection and privacy, last week confirmed the organization breached European data protection laws by forwarding transaction and banking information on to the US Department of Treasury.

A statement from the working party said that even in the fight against terrorism and crime, fundamental rights must remain guaranteed, adding Swift, and financial institutions hold joint responsibility for the transfers.

"The existing international framework is already available with regard to the fight against terrorism. The possibilities already offered should be exploited while ensuring the required level of protection of fundamental rights," said the statement.

"As far as the communication of personal data to the U.S. Treasury is concerned, the Working Party is of the opinion that the hidden, systemic, massive and long-term transfer of personal data by Swift to the U.S. Treasury in a confidential, non-transparent and systematic manner for years without effective legal grounds and without the possibility of independent control by public data protection supervisory authorities constitutes a violation of the fundamental European principles as regards data protection and is not in accordance with Belgian and European law.