The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body that develops and promotes polices to protect the global financial system against money laundering and terrorist financing, has today published a mutual evaluation report on AML and CFT measures in Italy.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducted the assessment of Italy’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) system, based on the 2012 FATF Recommendations, and using the 2013 Methodology. The assessment is a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of Italy’s AML/CFT system and its level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations.
Italy has a strong legal and institutional framework to fight ML and TF. Authorities have a good understanding of the money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) risks the country faces. There is generally good policy cooperation, coordination, and financial intelligence gathering and use. The authorities are able to successfully undertake large and complex money laundering and terrorist financing investigations and prosecutions, and beneficial ownership information is generally accessible to authorities.
There are areas where improvements are needed. Italy should enhance its ML investigative and prosecutorial action on risks associated with self-laundering, standalone money laundering, and foreign predicate offenses, and the abuse of legal persons. Italy should enhance the accessibility of relevant information and dissemination of analysis by its FIU, strengthen sanctions, and improve financial sectors’ and DNFBPs’ understanding and implementation of requirements for beneficial ownership identification.
This report was adopted by the FATF at its Plenary meeting in October 2015.