As the European Parliament prepares to flex its muscles in the vote on the SWIFT data deal, the U.S. is trying to convince the Europeans of the importance of sharing bank transfer information. U.S. officials say the E.U. and Germany have already benefited from the SWIFT reports in fighting terrorism.

The United States is upping the pressure ahead of a vote in the European Parliament later this week on an agreement that would continue to allow U.S. terror investigators access to bank transfer data. Washington is warning the European Union and Germany that there could be serious diplomatic consequences, as well as security gaps, if the so-called SWIFT agreement gets overturned on Thursday.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transactions, the company that conducts the majority of the world's banking transfers, recently moved its servers from the U.S. to Europe, raising concern among Washington's terrorism investigators that they may lose access to data on cross border financial transactions.

At the end of November, European governments endorsed an agreement to permit U.S. authorities to access the data. However, under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force late last year, the European Parliament now has the authority to approve or reject such agreements.