In the past three years, the Bank of Portugal has received more than 15,000 applications to look into accounts held by customers of Portugal’s banks.Following a change in the law in 2010, investigators have had easier access to bank accounts held by those under suspicion after successful ‘removal of confidentiality’ requests were approved by the central bank.
In the Operation Marquês investigation into high-level corruption, bank account information has been essential in building cases again the accused.
Anti-corruption investigators have virtually direct access to all suspicious bank accounts with requests made by "official entities," including "other financial supervisors, judicial authorities and the Tax Authority."
This freer access was enabled due to a legislative amendment in 2010 - proposed by socialist MP, Filipe Neto Brandão - that allowed the Public Ministry to ask for account details without having to go through a judge.
Pedro Fonseca, a researcher at the Judicial Police’s National Anti-Corruption Unit, said that "the speed" of investigations nowadays has no parallel: "Follow the money is done at a speed of light," claims Fonseca.
This access has been vital in gathering evidence in the Lex, Fizz, Labyrinth, Marquês and Face Oculta investigations, in which financial accounts and financial transaction records have been key elements in creating cases.
Before the amendment to the law, bank secrecy could only be broken "under the terms provided for in criminal law and criminal proceedings" – i.e. with the approval of a judge.
Before the amendment to the law, bank secrecy could only be broken "under the terms provided for in criminal law and criminal proceedings" – i.e. with the approval of a judge.
At the same time that the 2010 proposal was approved, the Bank of Portugal created a database to aggregate all existing bank accounts to speed up the process as previously, information could take a year to arrive.
