Financial Crime World

Italy’s Anti-Money Laundering Efforts Get Mixed Review from Global Watchdog

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has released its 2016 Mutual Evaluation Report on Italy, assessing the country’s progress in implementing global anti-money laundering standards. The report provides a mixed review of Italy’s efforts to prevent money laundering and combat terrorist financing.

Key Strengths

  • Italy was found largely compliant with several key recommendations, including:
    • National cooperation and coordination (R.2)
    • Customer due diligence (R.10)
    • Record keeping (R.11)
    • Internal controls and foreign branches and subsidiaries (R.18)

These strengths demonstrate Italy’s commitment to implementing effective anti-money laundering measures.

Areas for Improvement

  • Italy fell short in several areas, including:
    • Confiscation and provisional measures (R.4)
    • Terrorist financing offence (R.5)
    • Financial institution secrecy laws (R.9)
    • Reporting of suspicious transactions (R.20)

These deficiencies highlight the need for Italy to improve its anti-money laundering efforts.

Partial Compliance

  • Italy was partially compliant with several recommendations, including:
    • Correspondent banking (R.13)
    • Higher-risk countries (R.19)

While partial compliance is a step in the right direction, it is not enough to achieve full compliance with global standards.

Non-Compliance

  • Italy’s anti-money laundering efforts were deemed non-compliant in several areas, including:
    • Regulation and supervision of financial institutions (R.26)
    • Powers of supervisors (R.27)
    • Statistics (R.33)

These non-compliances demonstrate a significant gap in Italy’s anti-money laundering framework.

Recommendations for Improvement

  • The FATF report highlights several areas where Italy needs to improve its anti-money laundering efforts, including:
    • Confiscation and provisional measures
    • Terrorist financing offence
    • Financial institution secrecy laws

Italy must address these shortcomings to ensure that it remains an attractive destination for foreign investment and maintains its position as a key player in the global economy.

Overall, while Italy has made progress in implementing global anti-money laundering standards, it still has a way to go to achieve full compliance. The country’s anti-money laundering authorities will need to work together to address these shortcomings and ensure that Italy remains a leader in fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.