Unità di informazione finanziaria

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Unità di informazione finanziaria (UIF) is the Italian central office for receiving, collecting and evaluating reports on suspicious financial transactions that could be related to money laundering or terrorist financing ( Financial Intelligence Unit - FIU). It is located at the Italian central bank Banca d'Italia , where it is organizationally independent and professionally independent within the scope of its tasks and powers. The legal basis is Legislative Decree 231/2007, with which Directive 2005/60 / EC on preventing the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering was implemented.

organization

The director of the UIF is appointed by the board of directors of the Banca d'Italia for a term of five years on the proposal of the governor . A one-off reappointment is possible. The director heads a panel of experts, the four other members of which are appointed by the finance minister after hearing the central bank governor for a period of three years, taking into account a gender quota and again only being able to be reappointed . All members of the committee must be able to demonstrate relevant professional experience and an “honorable lifestyle”. The committee meets at least every six months and has an advisory and supporting role. It also prepares reports on the work of the UIF, which feed into the annual report on the activities of the UIF to Parliament. The Bank of Italy is responsible for equipping the UIF.

The UIF is divided into two departments or services and these further into units. The Suspicious Operations Department (Servizio operazioni sospette) receives and collects suspicious activity reports and related technical matters. The Department of Analysis and Institutional Relations is responsible for evaluating and reporting suspicious transactions and for working with other authorities and organizations in Italy and abroad, as well as for administrative and legal matters (as of 2019).

Duties and powers

The UIF has the following tasks:

  • Acceptance of suspicious activity reports and analysis of the relevant transactions
  • Preventive analysis of financial flows
  • Temporary suspension of suspicious financial transactions (up to five working days) on your own initiative or at the request of law enforcement authorities ( Guardia di Finanza , Direzione Investigativa Antimafia , public prosecutors , foreign financial intelligence units )
  • Publication of guidelines, procedures and details regarding suspicious activity reports in the Official Journal of the Italian Republic and on the UIF website
  • Verification of compliance with suspicious transaction reporting standards among financial intermediaries , also in collaboration with the Guardia di Finanza
  • Reporting of violations of the suspicious transaction reporting standards to the responsible supervisory authorities (central bank, IVASS , Consob )
  • The fastest possible forwarding of relevant investigation results to the Guardia di Finanza (Nucleo speciale di polizia valutaria) and to the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia

The UIF can carry out surveys and analyzes directly with the financial intermediaries. Certain public administrations and companies are obliged to regularly compile statistics for the UIF. The UIF has access to the national tax, corporate, real estate and bank account databases. Special data protection regulations apply .

history

The UIF was de facto created on January 1, 2008 from parts of the former Ufficio Italiano dei Cambi (UIC; "Italian Office for Currency Exchange"). The 1945 from the former Istituto Nazionale per i Cambi con l'estero incurred and also at the Banca d'Italia is moved UIC was around 50 years for capital controls , the balance of payments statistics , management of foreign exchange reserves , the state-monopolized gold trading, trading foreign Securities , with Italian securities issued abroad and with Italian foreign currency securities. Around 1990, the UIC, based on Via Quattro Fontane in Rome, lost a number of these tasks, but in return was given responsibility for money laundering reports and other related tasks. For this purpose, a department for combating money laundering was set up at UIC. From this, the UIF emerged at the beginning of 2008 with its current headquarters at Largo Bastia 35 . The other positions of the UIC, which was dissolved at the same time, were taken over by the central bank.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Decreto legislativo November 21, 2007, n.231
  2. ↑ Organization on uif.bancaditalia.it
  3. ↑ UIC on treccani.it (Italian)
  4. ↑ INCE on beniculturali.it (Italian)

Coordinates: 41 ° 52 '27.9 "  N , 12 ° 32' 4.9"  E