Bank-transfer company SWIFT builds new center in Switzerland, skirts US request for data: BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Bank transfer consortium SWIFT said Monday it would open a new operating center in Switzerland by the end of 2009, allowing it to better protect data collected in Europe and skirt a U.S. government subpoena to open its database to U.S. anti-terror agents.

SWIFT, which operates one of the largest financial transfer systems in the world, drew criticism from EU data protection officers and lawmakers last year for transferring bank data to the U.S. Treasury under a secret deal. The deal, they said, violated European privacy laws because it did not give enough guarantees that the data was properly protected.

SWIFT, a consortium set up by member banks, is responsible for the collection and relay of over 11 million financial transactions daily between 8,100 banks and other financial institutions in over 200 countries _ recording customer names, account numbers and other identifying information.

One of SWIFT's hubs is located in the Netherlands, while the other is in the U.S. state of Virginia, allowing the United States to issue legal orders to the company because it conducts business on U.S. territory and must comply with the law there.

But data collected within Europe will from now on «stay within their region of origin, thereby overcoming data protection concerns,» said SWIFT Chief Executive Officer Lazaro Campos.

(Read Original Article - Via pr-inside.com .)