The justice ministry is looking at ways to get direct access to the names and addresses of bank account holders, possibly through a central registry, the NRC reported on Thursday.

The plans are part of a ministry proposal obtained by privacy lobby group Bits of Freedom under freedom of information legislation. The document has been heavily censored, the paper says.
Nevertheless a ministry spokesman has confirmed a central register of bank details is under consideration. ‘At the moment investigators have to approach individual banks. There is a clear need for a central information point,’ he said.
Payment details
The data bank would not contain payment or credit card details, the paper says, but points out this could change in the future.
The spokesman could not say how advanced the plans are. The ministry told the Telegraaf the research is in its early stages and no decision about whether to set up a data bank has yet been taken.
Information about telephone and internet usage is already stored centrally in a system known as CIOT. Over the past year, police and justice ministry officials have applied for information from CIOT three million times, the NRC says.