The CIA is reportedly creating a huge database of global money transfers including financial and personal information on Americans.
As part of the programme, the FBI collaborates with the CIA to gather information on international transactions made by Americans and others from money-transfer firms including Western Union.
The CIA’s data-gathering is similar to that of the NSA under the Patriot Act, and both bodies are authorised to do so by the secret national security court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Western Union spokeswoman Luella D’Angelo said that the money transfer firm collects consumer information to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and other laws.
"In doing so, we also protect our consumers’ privacy and work to prevent consumer fraud," D’Angelo said.
The agency is not authorised to target Americans in its intelligence collection, while it is authorised to carry out domestic operations for foreign intelligence purposes.
The latest programme exposes how various US intelligence agencies have been using the same legal power to gather data.
The data collected by the CIA from the Western Union and other US money transfer firms includes transfers to and from the US and are not exclusively domestic transactions, with most of them taking place in foreign countries.
Reports revealed that the CIA helps the FBI by informing it about identified possible suspicious terror activity in the country.
A MoneyGram spokeswoman said that the company has been reporting obligations related to suspicious transactions, money laundering and other financial crimes globally.
"The laws to which we are subject generally prohibit us from discussing details," she said.
"We value our customers’ privacy and work hard to protect it."
The CIA is not authorised to spy on American citizens, it can obtain domestic data if it serves foreign intelligence goals.
