By Marcello Condemi
The rapid spread of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the concomitant rapid development of transactions relating to the economic-financial world carried out by means of telematic methods have highlighted the need for continuous adjustment of the regulatory framework relating to the many sectors affected by the aforementioned digital evolution, sectors among which the following stands out as particularly important Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Combating Financing of Terrorism (CFT).
In particular, the development of ICT has led to a progressive increase in potential risks that could undermine the complex and articulated Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism system, especially with reference to the activity of Adequate Customer Verification or Customer Due Diligence (CDD), the cornerstone of AML/CFT activity, risks that can be identified, for example, in the increasingly frequent use of the remote onboarding, i.e. the practice of customer acquisition by banks and financial intermediaries carried out electronically.
It is precisely in this perspective that the need was felt to issue a specific regulation concerning the Adequate Verification activities carried out through telematic modalities (so called Remote Adequate Verification), which are already the subject of national [Article 19, paragraph 1, lett. a), no. 5 of Legislative Decree no. 231 of 21 November 2007] and European Union (Article 1, paragraph 1, no. 8, letter a) of EU Directive 2018/843), as well as by regulatory provisions issued by the Bank of Italy (Provision of 30 July 2019) and, most recently, by specific Guidelines dictated by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and published on 22 November 2022.
The purpose of this contribution is not only to analyse the content profiles of the aforesaid Guidelines, examining, in particular, the innovations they will bring with reference to the pursuit of the AML/CFT objectives, but also to contextualise such identification method in the broader organisational and governance context (and therefore the prevention of risks of various kinds therein) of the intermediary that makes use of it.
Published in the journal “Dialogues of Economic Law” in March 2023
