Under local privacy laws, records cannot leave Australia unless safeguards are attached.

While the Australian Banking Association (ABA) was unwilling to comment, the Swift 2005 Annual Report shows 11 banks and 88 financial institutions in Australia sent more than three million messages over the SWIFTNet FIN service last year.

However, the privacy commissioner cannot investigate Swift itself because the organization is based in Belgium, which is outside the commissioner's jurisdiction.

Swift and the ECB has not been fined for breaching European privacy laws, but ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet admits a global framework is required to deal with this problem.

"The problem is ongoing. The system we have in place is imperfect," Trichet said.