FantasticSearch

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.