The account register has failed/ Bailiffs and law enforcement institutions "flood" banks with requests

2024-06-25 07:51:36, Aktualitet CNA

The account register has failed/ Bailiffs and law enforcement institutions

Illustrative photo, taken from Google

The law on the register of bank accounts has so far failed in its aim to facilitate the work of law enforcement institutions and banks.

One of the goals of the law was for institutions to gain access or the right to information from the register of accounts of subjects, so that they were not obliged to send requests to all banks to obtain the necessary information.

However, sources from the banking sector say that in practice nothing has changed.

Institutions and bailiffs continue to send requests to all banks in the sector, to obtain information about the bank accounts of individuals or entities.

Banks continue to face very large volumes of requests for information from institutions, such as prosecution bodies or bailiffs.

Due to the large number of requests and short legal deadlines for returning answers, this practice has created very big problems for commercial banks, which do not have enough human resources to respond in time to such flows.

Moreover, although we are in the age of digitization, legally banks cannot return answers electronically, but only with documents with a physical signature and stamp, a process that takes even more time.

The law "On the register of bank accounts" entered into force at the beginning of 2021. This register was created by the National Information Society Agency (AKSHI) to be administered by the General Directorate of Taxes.

Information stored in the registry is confidential and unavailable to the general public. The law stipulates that the data kept in the register constitute a banking and professional secret and must be treated and stored as such by all authorities that have access to them. They are also exempt from the provisions of the legislation in force on the right to information. The electronic register in question, however, does not contain data on the balance of accounts, but functions only as a list of bank accounts owned by each person or entity.

The General Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering has full, immediate and unfiltered access to the register data, while other interested entities are guaranteed the right of access only to those register data that are necessary for fulfilling their functional duties.

These institutions include the General Prosecutor's Office, the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Corruption and Organized Crime, the General Directorate of the State Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, the State Information Service, the High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Control of Assets and Conflict of Interest, the Directorate General Directorate of Taxes, directorates of taxes and fees near local self-government units and the General Directorate of Customs.

The level of access for other institutions will be determined by the decision of the Council of Ministers, with the proposal of the Minister of Finance. Other entities, such as the state or private judicial enforcement service, financial institutions or any other public authority, which special legislation gives the right to have information in the register, will not have direct access, but can only obtain information by presenting a reasoned request to the General Directorate of Taxes.

But, in fact, this provision of the law does not seem to work, as the bailiffs do not receive preliminary information about bank accounts from DPT, but continue to send requests to all banks in the sector to be informed about debtors' accounts and to request , further, their blocking./ Monitor.al