The EU is strengthening the capacity of law enforcement authorities to fight terrorism and serious crime by improving their access to financial information. The Council adopted a directive laying down rules to facilitate the use of financial and other information for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of certain criminal offences.
The existing EU directive on the prevention of money laundering requires member states to establish centralised bank account registries or data retrieval systems to allow for the timely identification of persons holding bank and payment accounts and safe deposit boxes. It also gives financial intelligence units direct access to the information held in those registries.
For more information - Council of EU – Press release Law enforcement access to financial information: Council adopts new rules
