ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the disclosure systems in England and Wales and in the Netherlands as instruments of proactive financial investigation. The intermediary role between financial institutions and law enforcement agencies that is performed in the Netherlands by the Disclosures Office is a role found in several other continental European countries, for example, Belgium and France. The expectations of feedback among Dutch bankers are lower than in the UK, with only formal acknowledgement of the reports in the Netherlands, but much greater agreements to feed back information about results of reports in the UK. Information about criminals’ financial affairs can help in asset freezing and confiscation – one of the new areas for European police forces. The banks wanted to see their position legally regulated where they had disclosed information to the police about clients in spite of their contractual duty of secrecy.
