Editing SWIFT (section)

===U.S. government surveillance===

A series of articles published on 23 June 2006 in ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', and the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' revealed a program, named the [[Terrorist Finance Tracking Program]], which the [[US Treasury Department]], [[CIA|Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)]], and other [[United States government]]al agencies initiated after the [[11 September attacks]] to gain access to the SWIFT transaction database.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brand |first=Constant |date=28 September 2005 |title=Belgian PM: Data Transfer Broke Rules |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092800585.html |access-date=23 May 2010}}</ref>

After the publication of these articles, SWIFT quickly came under pressure for compromising the [[data privacy]] of its customers by allowing governments to gain access to sensitive personal information. In September 2006, the Belgian government declared that these SWIFT dealings with American governmental authorities were a breach of Belgian and [[European Union law|European]] [[privacy law]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hart |first=Jeffrey A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yZHTEAAAQBAJ&dq=SWIFT+September+2006+Belgian+privacy&pg=PA117 |title=Essays on the History and Politics of the Internet: Cyberpolitics |date=2023-08-11 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-5275-2871-0 |language=en}}</ref>

In response, and to satisfy members' concerns about privacy, SWIFT began a process of improving its architecture by implementing a distributed architecture with a two-zone model for storing messages {{crossreference|(see {{slink||Operations centres}})}}.

Concurrently, the [[European Union]] negotiated an agreement with the [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]] to permit the transfer of intra-EU SWIFT transaction information to the United States under certain circumstances. Because of concerns about its potential contents, the [[European Parliament]] adopted a position statement in September 2009, demanding to see the full text of the agreement and asking that it be fully compliant with EU privacy legislation, with oversight mechanisms emplaced to ensure that all data requests were handled appropriately.<ref>{{Cite news |date=17 September 2009 |title=European Parliament resolution of 17 September 2009 on the SWIFT Agreement |publisher=[[European Parliament]] |url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P7-TA-2009-0016&language=EN&ring=B7-2009-0038}}</ref> An interim agreement was signed without European Parliamentary approval by the [[European Council]] on 30 November 2009,<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 January 2010 |title=European Parliament to vote on interim agreement at February session |publisher=[[European Parliament]] |url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/019-67614-018-01-04-902-20100119IPR67613-18-01-2010-2010-false/default_en.htm}}</ref> the day before the [[Treaty of Lisbon|Lisbon Treaty]]—which would have prohibited such an agreement from being signed under the terms of the [[codecision procedure]]—formally came into effect. While the interim agreement was scheduled to come into effect on 1 January 2010, the text of the agreement was classified as "EU Restricted" until translations could be provided in all EU languages and published on 25 January 2010.

On 11 February 2010, the European Parliament decided to reject the interim agreement between the EU and the US by 378 to 196 votes.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brand |first=Constant |date=11 February 2010 |title=Parliament rejects bank transfer data deal |work=European Voice |url=http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2010/02/parliament-rejects-bank-transfer-data-deal/67144.aspx}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=11 February 2010 |title=Euro MPs block bank data deal with US |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8510471.stm}}</ref> One week earlier, the parliament's civil liberties committee had already rejected the deal, citing legal reservations.<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 February 2010 |title=European parliament rejects SWIFT deal for sharing bank data with US |work=[[Deutsche Welle|DW]] |agency=Reuters |url=http://www.dw.com/en/european-parliament-rejects-swift-deal-for-sharing-bank-data-with-us/a-5239595}}</ref>

In March 2011, it was reported that two mechanisms of data protection had failed: [[EUROPOL]] released a report complaining that requests for information from the US had been too vague (making it impossible to make judgments on validity)<ref name="2011spiegel">{{Cite news |last=Schult |first=Christoph |date=16 March 2011 |title=Brussels Eyes a Halt to SWIFT Data Agreement |work=Der Spiegel |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,751262,00.html}}</ref> and that the guaranteed right for European citizens to know whether their information had been accessed by US authorities had not been put into practice.<ref name="2011spiegel" />

''[[Der Spiegel]]'' reported in September 2013 that the [[National Security Agency]] (NSA) widely monitors banking transactions via SWIFT, as well as credit card transactions.<ref name="speigel">{{Cite web |date=15 September 2013 |title='Follow the Money': NSA Spies on International Payments |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-exclusive-nsa-spies-on-international-bank-transactions-a-922276.html |access-date=18 September 2013 |website=Der Spiegel}}</ref> The NSA intercepted and retained data from the SWIFT network used by thousands of banks to securely send transaction information. SWIFT was named as a "target", according to documents leaked by [[Edward Snowden]]. The documents revealed that the NSA spied on SWIFT using a variety of methods, including reading "SWIFT printer traffic from numerous banks".<ref name=speigel/> In April 2017, a group known as the [[Shadow Brokers]] released files allegedly from the NSA which indicate that the agency monitored financial transactions made through SWIFT.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Baldwin |first=Clare |author-link=Clare Baldwin |date=15 April 2017 |title=Hackers release files indicating NSA monitored global bank transfers |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-swift-idUSKBN17G1HC |access-date=15 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lawler |first=Richard |title=Shadow Brokers release also suggests NSA spied on bank transactions |url=https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/14/shadow-brokers-release-also-suggest-nsa-spied-on-bank-transactio/ |access-date=15 April 2017 |website=Engadget|date=15 April 2017 }}</ref>