Italy

New Documents

The Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, spoke to the Sixth Committee of the Chamber of Deputies to discuss the Bank’s functions and activities, including its role in supervising critical service providers, networks, and technology in the face of growing cybersecurity risks.

Italian financial regulatory authorities Banca d’Italia and Consob announced their compliance with the guidelines issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority concerning operators of distributed ledger technology (DLT) market infrastructure.

Enforcement Actions

The Bank of Italy issued a decision requiring the Milan, Italy branch of ING Bank to refrain from engaging in transactions with new customers following a finding of shortcomings in compliance with anti-money laundering requirements.


Important Facts

  • The U.S. State Department identifies Italy as a major money laundering country. Italy has a sophisticated anti-money laundering regime and legal framework. However, money-laundering risks continue to arise from activities associated with complex organized criminal enterprises and a flourishing black-market economy, which accounts for 12.1 percent of Italy's GDP. Drug trafficking is a primary source of income for Italy’s organized crime groups, which exploit its strategic geographic location to do business with criminal organizations around the globe. Other major sources for money laundering are proceeds from tax evasion and value-added tax fraud, smuggling and sale of counterfeit goods, extortion, and waste trafficking. Private banking, real estate transactions, gaming, the art trade, nonprofit organizations, small cash businesses and financial technologies provide large avenues for money laundering. Also, law enforcement investigations have identified an increasing use of trade-based money laundering schemes. In 2019, the government enacted legislation that clarifies virtual currency treatment under AML statutes, strengthens money laundering investigation powers, and imposes additional customer due diligence obligations on financial intermediaries. Regulations require financial institutions to apply enhanced due diligence measures in transactions involving both domestic and foreign politically exposed persons, but such measures are not imposed on designated non-financial businesses and professions.
-Source: 2021 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR)

Rankings

FATF i | 2013 Methodology

Technical Effectiveness
Compliant : 18 High : 0
Largely Compliant : 20 Substantial : 8
Partially Compliant : 2 Moderate : 3
Non-Compliant : 0 Low : 0

Italy's technical compliance was re-rated in a March 27, 2019 follow-up report

BASEL i

Rank : 27/110
Score : 4.57/10

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL i

Rank : 52/179
Score : 53/100

Tax Justice Network i

Rank : 41/133
Score : 50/100