The European Union is to legislate to improve the speed at which its financial intelligence units send each other information.

The European Commission, the nearest thing that the EU has to an executive branch, has proposed to present a law to the other organs of the EU to make financial intelligence units share bank account data between themselves more efficiently, according to the London Financial Times. The FIUs have had to share information with each other by law since 2003, a which time the UK's police forces were voicing their reluctance to send British financial intelligence directly to the Mafia which, they said, had infiltrated all levels of the Italian police. The latest EU initiative is likely to exacerbate the problem.

The new law also aims to 'simplify' law enforcers’ access to national registers of bank account holders.

Vera Jourova, the EU’s justice commissioner, told the FT: "When dealing with the Latvian [ABLV] case I had a very strong feeling that...these stricter rules [would be] the right thing as a preventive measure, and...allow us to be stronger in enforcement in such cases. The proposal is about strengthening investigation and prosecuting of serious crime, by ensuring stronger co-operation between financial intelligence units of different member states and with other law enforcement authorities."