Beneficial Ownership Gaps Mar Italy's Otherwise Solid FATF Scorecard

The Financial Action Task Force has rated Italy's defenses and efforts against illicit finance broadly effective following an evaluation last year, but criticized the country for blocking access to a national database of beneficial owners, even to law enforcement.

In a 264-page report on the evaluation Thursday, the organization, also known as FATF, noted the quality with which supervisors in Italy monitor financial services companies for anti-money laundering purposes, and the "sophisticated coordination" between investigators and other public authorities during complex money-laundering cases tied to crime syndicates.

But Italy's decision to respond to a legal challenge by suspending the national register of beneficial owners and halt the collection of additional details has impeded the country's efforts at tracking the finances of those very same syndicates, FATF found.

"Italy has demonstrated a strong commitment to securing funds lost to organized crime, and Italian authorities have the tools and investigative capabilities to pursue and confiscate illicit assets," FATF President Eliza de Anda Madrazo said Thursday. "Italy must sustain this momentum, and close remaining loopholes that criminals seek to exploit."

All told, FATF rated Italy "substantial"—the second-highest possible score—in eight outcomes of effectiveness, including financial supervision, use of financial intelligence and pursuit of cases against money launderers, and "moderate"—the second-lowest—in the remaining three, including corporate transparency, which covers beneficial ownership.

Italy also graded out "compliant" or "largely compliant" in 36 of the group's 40 technical standards, with gaps showing only with corporate transparency, correspondent banking and politically exposed persons.

Italian officials took the beneficial ownership register down in October 2024 after corporate service providers and the trade groups that represent them challenged the legality of the database in a case now pending before the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg.    

The decision left Italian investigators and Italy's financial intelligence unit, UIF, relying on the national business register, the Registro delle Imprese, for insight into corporate ownership, and requesting comparable details from foreign counterparts and local AML-regulated institutions on a case-by-case basis.

"While information in the business register ... appears useful, it does not contain information on [shareholder] voting rights or other types of control," FATF concluded after an onsite visit to Italy in June of last year.

The organization called on Italy to either restore access to the register of beneficial owners or find alternative means for public authorities to obtain such details in an effective and timely manner.

Most of the power to compel such a reversal resides not with FATF, but with the EU, which has already directed national governments to reopen their beneficial ownership registers to public authorities, AML‑regulated institutions, and journalists and other parties with a "legitimate interest" by July.

Maturity

FATF noted Thursday that although crime syndicates pose a well-documented and serious threat in Italy, various agencies work together to bring them to justice while also showing a "strong" understanding of their finances.

The group particularly praised the establishment of the Financial Security Committee, a forum through which Italy's Guardia di Finanza and other agencies pursue illicit finance-related cases in "parallel" with their investigations into organized crime. 

"This has resulted in a significant number of money laundering prosecutions and convictions," FATF concluded.

FATF also took care to mention the "central and effective role" of UIF against illicit finance, and the "robust, well-defined and comprehensive" methodology Italian officials use when assessing their country's unique vulnerabilities to illegally generated funds.

"The report confirms Italy's maturity and well-developed capacities, which result from the significant threats the country has been facing for almost a century, especially from mafias," Michele Riccardi, deputy director of Transcrime, an academic research center in Milan, told ACAMS moneylaundering.com.

Among designated non‑financial businesses and professions in Italy, only notaries and auditors show a firm grasp of financial crime-related risks. Lawyers and real‑estate professionals, by contrast, tend to rely on banks and other parties to notice and flag suspicious transactions.

FATF further determined that the Guardia di Finanza, which supervises DNFBPs, leans too much on lengthy proceedings and fines to deter violations and promote compliance, and urged the agency to use remediation and tailored guidance for that purpose more often.

Mirco di Lorenzo, a consultant with JS Italy in Rome, said that FATF's conclusions reflect the reality on the ground.

"The system works very well downstream on the investigations and prosecutions side, but is less effective upstream, particularly in terms of [corporate] transparency and [financial crime] prevention," di Lorenzo said.

Contact Gabriel Vedrenne at gvedrenne@acams.org

• Topics: AML Regulations and Legislations, Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Finance of Terrorism
• Document Date: April 23, 2026