§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their response to proposals by the European Commission concerning the registration of bank accounts, including those of charities and commercial companies. [HL4092]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey)As far as HM Treasury is aware the European Commission has not proposed a register of bank accounts.
The Commission published its proposal for the third Money Laundering Directive on 30 June 2004. Article 28 makes clear that EU credit and financial institutions must be able to respond fully and rapidly to requests by the relevant authorities for information on their business relations with natural and legal persons. However, the Explanatory Memorandum to the proposal explicitly states that "the Commission is not at this stage proposing a mandatory register of bank accounts in all Member States"; it is left to each member state to decide how to achieve the objective of Article 28.