SLOVAKIA SUPPORTIVE OF TFTP

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRATISLAVA 000978

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/20/2016
TAGS: EFIN PTER ECON EU LO
SUBJECT: SLOVAKIA SUPPORTIVE OF TFTP

REF: STATE 194473

Classified By: Ambassador Rodolphe M. Vallee for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d
)


1. (SBU) This is an action request. See paragraph 3.


2. (C) On December 19, Emboff met with Martin Barto, Vice
Governor of the Central Bank of Slovakia for Banking
Supervision, to discuss the SWIFT program. The meeting
focused primarily on the Faull letter from the European
Commission, since Barto is head of the team in charge of
drafting reply comments. Barto pointedly expressed
skepticism about the intent behind questions 2, 3, and 4 in
the Faull letter, which inquire about whether credit
establishments and end customers are informed about data
transfer by SWIFT to the U.S. He saw these as an attempt to
introduce the "informed consent" principle, which he views as
unworkable within an effective terrorist finance monitoring
system. Barto further added Slovakia is supportive of the
Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP),and that it should
continue.


3. (C) While philosophically supportive of our position,
Barto commented that the questions in the Faull letter were
narrowly defined, leaving limited space in his response to
make a broader defense of SWIFT or the TFTP. He also did not
feel confident that he had the full information required to
make his case, and asked us for further arguments. Broadly
speaking, he agreed that UN Security Council and FATF AML/CFT
obligations on terrorist finance supersede findings of the
Article 29 Working Party, but said his team is not prepared
to make the legal case to explain why this is so. He also
asked for further elaboration of how SWIFT is working with
member banks to improve general disclosure to bank customers.
Barto added that his team just began drafting comments late
last week and will struggle to finish comments by the end of
the year, so further input would be most welcome. Action
request: Post requests further guidance on what talking
points we can forward to the Central Bank on these specific
questions, and also to questions 2, 3, and 4 from the Faull
letter.


4. (SBU) Earlier this month, Emboff contacted the Terrorist
Finance units at the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (Dec. 6)
and Interior (Dec. 7). The former was unaware of the issue
and the latter was barely aware, and neither had substantive
responses on the issue. On matters related to the SWIFT
program, the Central Bank is the sole institution with
authority or significant knowledge.
VALLEE