Brussels, 13/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The revision of European legislation on the financial markets has a significant impact on data protection, the European data protection controller (EDPC) announced in a press release on Monday 13 February. He has examined the legislative package on the revision of banking legislation, the directive and regulation on market abuse, the regulation and directive on the financial instruments markets and the revision of the regulation on credit ratings agencies - four dossiers with an impact on the control of financial data which “all raise the same concerns”, the EDPC continues.
“In the financial sector, I am particularly concerned about the data protection issues raised by the new powers of the supervisory authorities, especially in relation to access to communication data and inspection of private premises”, said the deputy controller, Giovanni Buttarelli.
Regarding this, the EDPC has issued six recommendations: “inserting substantive provisions emphasising the applicability of existing data protection legislation; adding specific safeguards to the provisions concerning the transfer of data to third countries; limiting access to private premises and records of telephone and data traffic to identified and serious violations of the proposed legislation and clearly specifying the categories of telephone and data traffic records which are required to be retained by financial institutions and/or provided to supervisory authorities; assessing the necessity and proportionality of the proposed provisions on publications of sanctions; ensuring that the identity of whistleblowers is protected and guaranteeing that appropriate procedures to ensure the right of the accused person to defence and to be heard as well as the right to seek effective judicial remedy against any decision measure concerning him are put into place.” (SP/transl.fl)