Requests for information by competent authorities to an FIU
Article 7
1. Subject to national procedural safeguards, each Member State shall ensure that its national FIU is required to cooperate with its designated competent authorities referred to in Article 3(2) and to be able to reply, in a timely manner, to reasoned requests for financial information or financial analysis by those designated competent authorities in their respective Member State, where that financial information or financial analysis is necessary on a case-by-case basis and where the request is motivated by concerns relating to the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of serious criminal offences. 2. Where there are objective grounds for assuming that the provision of such information would have a negative impact on ongoing investigations or analyses, or, in exceptional circumstances, where disclosure of the information would be clearly disproportionate to the legitimate interests of a natural or legal person or irrelevant with regard to the purposes for which it has been requested, the FIU shall be under no obligation to comply with the request for information. 3. Any use for purposes beyond those originally approved shall be made subject to the prior consent of that FIU. FIUs shall appropriately explain any refusal to reply to a request made under paragraph 1. 4. The decision on conducting the dissemination of information shall remain with the FIU. 5. The designated competent authorities may process the financial information and financial analysis received from the FIU for the specific purposes of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting serious criminal offences other than the purposes for which personal data are collected in accordance with Article 4(2) of Directive (EU) 2016/680.