NSA monitored global financial transactions

A branch of the NSA has been collecting global financial data, including credit card transactions and data from SWIFT, which runs an international bank messaging system, according to a report Sunday from Der Spiegel.

The German publication provided details about a U.S. National Security Agency branch called “Follow the Money” that inputs financial data into a system called “Tracfin” that it said came from documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.