LONDON - British banks are gearing up to share more data with their peers on suspected serious economic crime as part of wider efforts to stem dirty money flows into the country from Russia and elsewhere, four sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Banks have long been wary of sharing customer data for fear of falling foul of strict British and global data protection and privacy laws, which could trigger litigation by customers whose accounts have been locked pending investigations. Two of Britain's "Big Four" banks - Lloyds and NatWest - are participating in both data trials, industry sources said.
The second pilot would involve launching a broader database for suspected economic crime and involves around eight banks, Britain's interior ministry and bank lobby group UK Finance, two of the sources said. The two pilots, however, would allow extensive information sharing between banks on large-scale financial crime, expand public-private data sharing initiatives and set up a similar platform to Britain's national fraud database for serious economic crime.