1. Member States shall ensure that the competent national authorities designated pursuant to Article 3(1) have the power to access and search, directly and immediately, bank account information when necessary for the performance of their tasks for the purposes of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting a serious criminal offence or supporting a criminal investigation concerning a serious criminal offence, including the identification, tracing and freezing of the assets related to such investigation. Access and searches shall be considered to be direct and immediate, inter alia, where the national authorities operating the central bank account registries transmit the bank account information expeditiously by an automated mechanism to competent authorities, provided that no intermediary institution is able to interfere with the requested data or the information to be provided.
1a. Member States shall ensure that the competent national authorities designated pursuant to Articl
…