The authority is charged with gaining access to banking data via the enforcement register, but without sufficient basis, and Estonian-founded bank LHV has demanded from the FIU a penalty of €247,000,000 for infringements. LINK
SEB and Swedbank, however, say they are awaiting legal clarity from the state and have also taken steps toward achieving that; a position which the two banks have held for the past week.

"We will continue to assess the situation and monitor developments," a Swedbank spokesperson told ERR. The bank also added that it is working every day to ensure that the "rights of the bank's clients are more clearly and securely protected."

SEB press representative Maarja Lumiste said: "As a top priority, taking into consideration the interests and rights of our clients, we are actively working with the banking sector's representative organization and engaging with the state to find solutions to the situation. We stand for the state creating and ensuring legal clarity, while maintaining effective means to combat financial crime."

Banking association: State cannot delegate responsibility for legislation

Enn Riisalu of the Estonian banking association (Eesti pangaliit) said the organization has met with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Digital Affairs on the issue of ensuring legal clarity.

The two banks themselves declined to comment on the specific steps taken to establish legal clarity, stating that the matter is being handled collectively via the association.

The banking association's chair, Kadri Kiisel, who is also LHV CEO, told ERR that the Chancellor of Justice clearly pointed out in her analysis on the issue that the current legal framework is lacking when it comes to the FIU collecting bank account statements via the enforcement register.

" A separate question is whether the state needs access to bank account statements under certain cases and conditions. Also, whether automatic information exchange, if well-regulated and subject to effective oversight, is necessary. The answer to both is yes. The issue the Chancellor of Justice highlighted in her July 1 memorandum is that the current legal framework does not fully support such information exchange in its existing form," Kiisel said, adding, "legislation is one of the state's core functions," whose responsibility "cannot be delegated" and "does not disappear even if input is gathered from different interest groups during the legislative and participatory process, as is standard practice."

Representatives of the banking sector had taken part in the enforcement register development working group.

Kiisel noted that in recent days, banks have seen several state-level steps which give cause for reassurance that active efforts are underway to develop solutions.

Over the past month, concerns have grown over banks' roles in the misuse of the enforcement register. Though not a legal requirement, banks had responded to queries without verifying their validity. On July 1, Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise revealed that authorities had accessed bank secrecy without a proper legal basis. In response, Justice Minister Liisa Pakosta signed a new regulation, on July 8, requiring agencies to reapply for access. As of July 14, under the revised rules, some key security agencies such as the Internal Security Service (ISS) retained full or limited access, but the FIU lost its access entirely.

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