[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 204 (Tuesday, October 23, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60054-60066]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 07-5212]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Office of Foreign Assets Control


Notice: Publication of U.S./EU Exchange of Letters and Terrorist 
Finance Tracking Program Representations of the United States 
Department of the Treasury

AGENCY: Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[[Page 60055]]

SUMMARY: The Treasury Department administers the Terrorist Finance 
Tracking Program (TFTP) as a targeted tool to help track terrorists and 
their networks. The TFTP utilizes certain financial transaction 
information provided by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial 
Telecommunication (SWIFT), a Belgium-based cooperative, under 
compulsion of administrative subpoenas. Discussions among U.S. and 
European authorities on the operation of the TFTP in the context of 
their respective counterterrorism efforts and data privacy laws 
culminated on June 28, 2007, in the ``Terrorist Finance Tracking 
Program Representations of the United States Department of the 
Treasury'' and a related exchange of letters between the Treasury 
Department and the EU. Each of these documents is included as an 
appendix to this notice.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Treasury Department initiated the TFTP 
shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks as part of an effort to 
employ all available means to track terrorists and their networks. 
Under the TFTP, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets 
Control (OFAC) periodically issues administrative subpoenas for 
terrorist-related data to the U.S. operations center of the Society for 
Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a Belgium-
based cooperative that operates a worldwide messaging system used to 
transmit financial transaction information. These subpoenas require 
SWIFT to provide the Treasury Department with specified financial 
transaction records maintained by SWIFT's U.S. operations center in the 
ordinary course of its business.
    After public media disclosure of the TFTP in June 2006, concerns 
were raised in the European Union (EU) about the TFTP and, in 
particular, the possibility that the Treasury Department might have 
access to EU-originating personal data through the SWIFT transaction 
records. Specifically, questions were raised on the TFTP's consistency 
with obligations under the Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/
EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on 
the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal 
data and on the free movement of such data), as well as Member State 
laws implementing that Directive.
    Treasury Department officials subsequently engaged in a series of 
discussions with, among others, European Commission and Member State 
representatives on the operation of the TFTP and its conformity with EU 
data privacy laws. That dialogue culminated on June 28, 2007, in the 
``Terrorist Finance Tracking Program Representations of the United 
States Department of the Treasury'' and a related exchange of letters 
between the Treasury Department and the EU. For the convenience of the 
user, each of the documents is being included as an appendix to this 
notice.
    The Representations describe, among other things: (1) OFAC's legal 
authority to obtain and use the SWIFT data; (2) the controls and 
safeguards that govern the handling, use, and dissemination of the 
data; (3) the multiple complementary layers of independent oversight of 
the TFTP; and (4) the U.S. Government's commitment to ongoing 
counterterrorism cooperation with the EU.
    The appended letter from the Treasury Department presents the 
Representations to the German Finance Minister, whose country then held 
the rotating EU Presidency, and to the Vice President of the European 
Commission responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security, whose duties 
encompass counterterrorism and privacy matters. The European Union's 
reply letter acknowledges that the Treasury Department has the 
authority to subpoena SWIFT data, and also states that once SWIFT and 
the financial institutions making use of its services have completed 
the necessary arrangements to respect EC law, in particular through the 
provision of information that personal data will be transferred to the 
United States and SWIFT's respecting the U.S. Department of Commerce's 
``Safe Harbor'' principles, they will be in compliance with their 
respective legal responsibilities under European data protection law. 
In July 2007, SWIFT announced that it had improved the transparency of 
its contractual documentation relating to the processing of financial 
messaging data in the context of data protection requirements and that 
it had joined the Safe Harbor program, which establishes a framework 
developed with the European Commission on how U.S. organizations can 
provide ``adequate protection'' for personal data from Europe.

(Authority: E.O. 13224, 66 FR 49079, 3 CFR, 2002 Comp., p. 786)

    Dated: September 26, 2007.
Adam J. Szubin,
Director, Office of Foreign Assets Control.
BILLING CODE 4811-42-P

Appendix 1--Terrorist Finance Tracking Program Representations of the 
U.S. Department of the Treasury

Appendix 2--Letter from U.S. Department of the Treasury Regarding the 
Terrorist Finance Tracking Program

Appendix 3--Reply from European Union to U.S. Department of the 
Treasury Regarding the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program

[[Page 60056]]

Appendix 1
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.014


[[Page 60057]]


[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.015


[[Page 60058]]


[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.016


[[Page 60059]]


[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.017


[[Page 60060]]


[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.018


[[Page 60061]]


[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.019


[[Page 60062]]


[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.020


[[Page 60063]]


[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.021


[[Page 60064]]


[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.022


[[Page 60065]]



Appendix 2
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.023


[[Page 60066]]



Appendix 3
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN23OC07.024

[FR Doc. 07-5212 Filed 10-22-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4811-42-C