The Bank of Italy has issued a communication calling on supervised intermediaries to verify that their controls can detect relationships and transactions involving persons and entities subject to European Union or national restrictive measures. Payment service providers and crypto-asset service providers must ensure that their arrangements comply with European Banking Authority Guidelines 2024/15, including where screening systems are developed or supplied by third parties. Customer screening is required when a relationship begins and following specified events, such as new EU restrictive measures or changes to customer information. Providers must also screen the payer and beneficiary before executing each transfer of funds or crypto-assets, without applying minimum transaction value thresholds. Systems should be calibrated to limit false positives while still detecting designated persons. The transfer-level requirements do not apply to instant credit transfers, for which payment service providers must instead screen their customers at least daily and when new restrictive measures are introduced. The Bank of Italy has also allowed providers with low exposure to sanctions implementation or evasion risk to apply the same approach to domestic Italy-to-Italy fund transfers.
2026-09-07Bank of Italy
Bank of Italy calls on intermediaries to verify sanctions screening controls and eliminate minimum transfer thresholds
The Bank of Italy has called on supervised intermediaries to verify that their sanctions screening controls comply with EBA Guidelines 2024/15. Payment and crypto-asset service providers must screen both parties to transfers without minimum value thresholds, subject to specific arrangements for instant payments and eligible low-risk domestic transfers.