For example, banks and other financial institutions are not covered by the safe harbor at the moment. In reality, it's a twig. The EU and U.S. negotiators put off discussion of the safe harbor's application to the U.S. financial services industry, which is regulated by the Federal Reserve and others, after they could not agree on the U.S. demand that such companies be automatically included in the safe harbor. U.S. officials and industry argue that U.S. financial companies' data handling practices are already regulated under U.S. law, which will be further enhanced once a new banking deregulation law passed by Congress goes into full effect. He said the EU is not entirely satisfied that the current laws covering financial services are satisfactory.
Further negotiations are on hold while the safe harbor is being implemented.
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