Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Brussels Group Passed Finance Records to CIA

Revelations that a Brussels-based company has been collecting international financial records to aid the CIA's anti-terrorism efforts have led to many questions about the cooperative, called SWIFT.

The monitoring program, begun after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has been overseen by the Treasury Department. Officials say it is limited to transactions that involve suspected terrorists. Started in 1973, SWIFT's name stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.

Michele Norris talks with L. Richard Fischer, author of The Law of Financial Privacy.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.