The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing has led the Spanish government to create a huge database with over 34 million accounts, reports ‘El País.’
The file containing the financial activity of all who have accounts in Spain can be consulted by judges, tax inspectors, police and Spain’s secret services.
In a further blow to customer confidentiality of banking data, the database aggregates data from over 34 million current and savings accounts.
The database will be filled with records sent in by the country’s banks and will be managed by the Secretary of State for the Economy. In addition to domestic account information, data will be added from accounts and deposits from branches or subsidiaries of Spanish banks based abroad.
Spain justifies this by saying it is only copying moves by France and Germany which have set up similar arrangements.
