“As a Supervisory Authority, the Institute pursues the sound and prudent management of intermediaries, the overall stability and efficiency of the financial system, as well as compliance with the provisions governing the matter by the supervised entities.
The Bank of Italy is the competent national authority under the Single Supervisory Mechanism (Single Supervisory Mechanism, SSM) on banks.
For the purposes of protecting banking and financial customers, the Bank's action is aimed at ensuring compliance with the rules of transparency and the correctness of the conduct of intermediaries towards customers, families and businesses, to strengthen the instruments of individual protection of customers and to increase the level of financial literacy of the population. "
Extract from the Bank of Italy Function List
From 1 January of this year the Banca d'Italia issued 12 sanctioning measures towards Banks and other supervised entities, of type “procedural”: by way of example, orders to carry out its activities in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations.
Their publication takes place electronically on the Institute's website, usually after notification to the data subjects. This is the motivation for the latest provision issued:
Failure to comply with the obligations relating to customer due diligence and methods of reporting suspicious transactions. *
This confirms that, although many sanctioning powers have been attributed to European Central Bank, at the Banca d'Italia however, there are still some to be imposed against:
- "Significant" banks (at the request of the ECB);
- Other banks;
- Other supervised entities (such as for example, SIM, SGR, intermediari finanziari) and in general to other supervised entities in the field of anti-money laundering and customer protection.
Instead, they are more serious the so-called "relevant" measures relating to the aforementioned supervised subjects. These in fact concern procedures of compulsory administrative liquidation but also revocation of the authorization to operate on the banking and financial market as well as prohibitions, closures and other inhibitory measures.
Alex Gaetani
*Bankitalia sanctioning measures