Italy’s high average income and consumer spending make it one of Western Europe’s most attractive markets for multi-national companies. They have a diversified economy with the north dominated by private companies and a less-developed, highly subsidised and south into agriculture with a higher unemployment rate. The Italian economy is primarily driven by the manufacture of high-quality consumer goods produced by small and medium-sized enterprises, many family-owned.
Due to the improving COVID situation and an upward revision to the first-quarter GDP data, the Bank of Italy forecasted a growth of 5% for this year and 4.5% for the following year’s economy. The expansion will be driven by investments in both years, which will “rise significantly” thanks to reduced uncertainty connected to the COVID-19 pandemic, low-interest rates, and projects funded by the European Union’s Recovery Fund.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Status
Italy has been a member of the FATF since 1990 and an observer to the Eurasian Group (EAG).
The FATF’s 2019 report analyses Italy’s actions to strengthen its legal, regulatory and operational framework to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism since the assessment of the country’s framework in 2015. The report also looks at whether Italy’s measures meet the requirements of the FATF Recommendations that have changed since their Mutual Evaluation, considering any new measures since the mutual evaluation.
Italy has made progress addressing the deficiencies in the Mutual Evaluation Report by the FATF. According to the 2019 report, Italy was deemed Compliant for 18 and Largely Compliant for 20 of the FATF 40 Recommendations.
Regulators
European Union (EU)
Italy has been a member of the EU since 1 January 1958, with 73 Italian members in the European Parliament. The EU’s goal is to maintain sustainable development based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive market economy with full employment, and establish an economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro.
Eurasian Group (EAG)
Italy is an observer to the EAG. The EAG is a FATF-style money laundering and terrorist financing regulatory body. This regional body comprises of nine countries: Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. EAG is an associate member of the FATF.
Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB)
The CONSOB is the public authority responsible for regulating the Italian financial markets. It is the supervisory authority for the Italian financial products market; it aims to protect investors and the market’s efficiency, transparency, and development. The CONSOB’s task is to regulate, sanction, monitor, and cooperates with the other domestic and international authorities appointed to organise and operate financial markets.
Banca D’Italia (Bank Of Italy)
The Bank of Italy’s responsibility is to ensure monetary and financial stability. A few of the Bank’s functions are to make decisions on the single monetary policy, carry out foreign exchange operations following the Euro-system, treasury operations and many more.
The Financial Intelligence Unit for Italy (UIF) was established by the Bank of Italy, with full operational and managerial autonomy; to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
Relevant regulations
Corruption is a significant problem in Italy. Their relationships compromise the integrity of public officials with organised crime and businesses. Public procurement, particularly infrastructure, presents a very high risk of corruption, as it involves enormous resources and exposes companies to organised crime. Extortion, active and passive bribery, bribing a foreign public official, fraud, and money laundering are criminalised under the Criminal Code of the Italian Republic. Italy has strict laws on the control of currency deposits in banks. Banks must identify their customers and record and report to Italy’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The Bank of Italy’s mandatory guidelines requires reporting all suspicious cash transactions and other activities, such as a third-party payment on international trade, on a case-by-case basis. Italian law prohibits using cash or negotiable bearer instruments for transferring money in amounts more than $15,000, except through authorized intermediaries or brokers.
Italian verification available
Any Italian citizen can be verified using government, commercial or credit data sources. Based on the documentation verified against the data sources, the name, date of birth (DOB), nationality and address can be validated.
Italian citizens can be verified using the following documents:
National Identity Card
The Carta D’identita is an Italian personal identification document. It is an optional identity document issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to anyone residing in Italy or Italian citizens living abroad. In recent years carta di identità elettronica (Electronic Identity Card or the CIE) has been promoted to replace paper-based identity cards. The CIE has an embedded electronic microprocessor chip that stores all the information. It can verify nationality, name, surname, place of birth, date of birth, holder’s picture, and two fingerprints.
Passport
The Italian passport is issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Since 26 October 2006, Italy has issued biometric passports with an embedded microprocessor chip that contains information that can be used to authenticate the passport holder’s identity. It can verify nationality, name, photo of the passport holder, passport number, surname, gender, place of birth, and DOB of customers.
Driver Licence
The Italian driver’s licence is a credit card-sized card issued by the Italian Motorizzazione Civile (Italian Dept. of Motor Transport) offices in Italy. You can verify your customers’ name, gender, DOB, licence number, and nationality.
AML Screening
Global watchlists can identify if an Italian citizen is a high-risk individual or entity. You can screen your customers against PEPs, Sanctions, and adverse media lists.