National banking supervisors in the EU are entitled to information about suspicious clients of banks that are not established in their territory but do provide financial services there from another EU country. This is the key message of a ruling from the European Court, dated 25 April 2013, in which the Commission was asked whether a bank had to provide information to the supervisor in the EU country of establishment only, or also to the supervisory authority in the EU country where it operates.
The ruling was made further to a request by the Spanish banking supervisor in January 2007 for information about clients of Jyske Bank Gibraltar. The request was made because names of intermediaries had emerged in numerous real estate transactions on the Spanish Costa del Sol and because these names might be connected to money laundering activities. The bank provided part of the information in June 2007, but refused to disclose information on its clients' identity and submit copies of suspicious transactions in Spain, referring to Gibraltar's banking secrecy rules. The bank argued that its only disclosure obligations were vis-à-vis the financial investigation unit of Gibraltar. The Spanish Council of Ministers then issued two public reprimands to the bank and imposed two fines of EUR 1.7 million in total, on the basis that the bank had failed to comply with the Spanish rules on disclosure. The bank appealed this decision before the Spanish Supreme Court, which referred the case to the European Court.
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