Privacy complaint lodged to protect customer records

20.10.2006
A formal complaint has been lodged with the federal privacy commissioner to determine whether Australia's banking industry is breaching local privacy laws by using the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (Swift) network.

The Swift network, which processes international funds transfers is used by the Commonwealth Bank Group, Westpac Banking Corp. and ANZ National Bank Ltd., has been accused of breaking European data protection laws by sharing personal information with US authorities.

Anna Johnston, chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation said the privacy of Australian's banking records has been put at risk by a third party, namely Swift, passing on records to the U.S. Government.

The US government ordered Swift to share a host of information about people and companies around the world following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as the data was deemed essential in tracing how terrorism was financed.

However, European data protection laws outlaw the transfer of personal data outside the European Union if the country receiving the information has weaker privacy protection laws.

Both Swift and the European Central Bank (ECB) have been accused of breaking Belgian and European data protection laws by sharing data deemed private and personal with U.S. authorities.