However, the privacy commissioner cannot investigate Swift itself because the organisation is based in Belgium, which is outside the commissioner's jurisdiction.

Swift and the ECB has not been fined for breaching European privacy laws, but ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet admits a global framework is required to deal with this problem.

"The problem is ongoing. The system we have in place is imperfect," Trichet said.

"It is very important to clarify the situation and work out what to do about such data transfers across the Atlantic.

"Any agreement between the EU and the US should then form the basis for a global situation because the problem is worldwide."

European parliamentarians drew a parallel between the Swift data sharing case and ongoing attempts to forge an agreement allowing US authorities access to airline passenger information.

In June this year the European Court of Justice branded a US mandate requiring passenger information to be sent to US authorities prior to travellers arriving in the country as illegal because the data may not be adequately protected.

Australian airlines fully comply with the US mandate and the federal government claims passenger data is secure.

However, Qantas has confirmed that local passenger data is held in Germany and is subject to the strict European data laws. "Our customer data is held in an offshore facility with Amadeus," the spokesperson said.

"The data is held in Germany and subject to the EEC data laws which if anything are more stringent than Australian data protection laws." - With Paul Meller