Chapter II, Article 4 · Directive (EU) 2019/1153

Contents

Article 4Access to and searches of bank account information by competent authorities#

1.Member States shall ensure that the competent national authorities designated pursuant to Article 3(1) have the power to access and search, directly and immediately, bank account information when necessary for the performance of their tasks for the purposes of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting a serious criminal offence or supporting a criminal investigation concerning a serious criminal offence, including the identification, tracing and freezing of the assets related to such investigation. Access and searches shall be considered to be direct and immediate, inter alia, where the national authorities operating the central bank account registries transmit the bank account information expeditiously by an automated mechanism to competent authorities, provided that no intermediary institution is able to interfere with the requested data or the information to be provided.

1a.Member States shall ensure that the competent national authorities designated pursuant to Article 3(1) of this Directive have the power to access and search, directly and immediately, bank account information in other Member States available through the bank account registers interconnection system (BARIS) put in place pursuant to Article 16(6) of Directive (EU) 2024/1640 where necessary for the performance of their tasks for the purpose of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting a serious criminal offence or supporting a criminal investigation concerning a serious criminal offence, including the identification, tracing and freezing of the assets related to such investigation.A Member State may limit the power to access and search bank account information through the BARIS to situations in which its competent national authorities designated pursuant to Article 3(1) have justified reasons to believe that there might be relevant bank account information in other Member States.Without prejudice to Article 4(2) of Directive (EU) 2016/680, bank account information obtained by means of accessing and searching the BARIS shall be processed only for the purpose for which it was collected.Access and searches pursuant to this paragraph shall be considered to be direct and immediate, inter alia, where the national authorities operating the central bank account registries transmit the bank account information expeditiously by an automated mechanism to competent authorities, provided that no intermediary institution is able to interfere with the requested data or the information to be provided.

1b.Access and searches pursuant to this Article shall be without prejudice to national procedural safeguards and Union and national rules on the protection of personal data.

2.The additional information that Member States consider essential and include in the centralised bank account registries pursuant to Article 32a(4) of Directive (EU) 2015/849 shall not be accessible and searchable by competent authorities pursuant to this Directive.

Defined terms · 15

Show every defined term

Asset Recovery Offices
means the national offices set up or designated by each Member State pursuant to Decision 2007/845/JHA;
associated predicate offences
means the offences referred to in point (1) of Article 2 of Directive (EU) 2018/1673;
bank account information
means the information set out in Article 16(3) of Directive (EU) 2024/1640 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
centralised bank account registries
means the centralised automated mechanisms, such as central registries or central electronic data retrieval systems, put in place in accordance with Article 32a(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/849;
credit institution
means credit institution as defined in Article 2, point (5), of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
crypto-asset service provider
means crypto-asset service provider as defined in Article 3(1), point (15), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
financial analysis
means the results of operational and strategic analysis that has already been carried out by the FIUs in the performance of their tasks, pursuant to Directive (EU) 2015/849;
financial information
means any type of information or data, such as data on financial assets, movements of funds or financial business relationships, which is already held by FIUs to prevent, detect and effectively combat money laundering and terrorist financing;
financial institution
means financial institution as defined in Article 2, point (6), of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624;
law enforcement information
means: such information can be, inter alia, criminal records, information on investigations, information on the freezing or seizure of assets or on other investigative or provisional measures and information on convictions and on confiscations;
money laundering
means the conduct defined in Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2018/1673 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
obliged entities
means the entities set out in Article 2(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/849;
serious criminal offences
means the forms of crime listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2016/794.
terrorist financing
means the conduct defined in Article 11 of Directive (EU) 2017/541 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
transaction records
means the details of operations which have been carried out during a defined period through a specified payment account, as defined in Article 2, point (5), of Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council, or a bank account identified by IBAN, as defined in Article 2, point (15), of that Regulation, or the details of transfers of crypto-assets, as defined in Article 3, point (10), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 of the European Parliament and of the Council;