The Fight Against Money-Laundering: Large Increase in Notaries’ Reporting of Suspect Operations

The report was as follows:

“The first half of 2012 saw the continuation of a significant increase in reporting of suspect operations to the UIF: 34,458 reports were lodged through “RADAR”, the new collection and management system, representing an increase over the previous year of 44.3%.

“For the first time there was strong growth – even though the absolute values are still modest – in the reports provided by professionals and non-financial operators, from 223 in the first half of 2011 to 1113 in the first half of this year, thanks especially to the contribution of the notariat (from 195 through the whole of 2011 to 844 in the period in question).

“Conversely, there was a further drop in reporting of the suspected financing of terrorism and programs for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, which fell from 239 in 2011 to 83 in the first half of 2012.

“In the six-month period, 756 parties in the various categories under obligation to notify reported at least one case. Of these, 521 are banks which continue to be by far the most active in reporting. Only a limited number of those reporting (12) sent in more than 500 notifications. Instead, 613 parties under obligation to notify sent in up to 20 reports and 131 between 21 and 500. Of the cases reported by banks, 71.3% related to teller transactions, while 11.6% resulted from controls by centralised anti-money laundering facilities. Anomalies picked up by automated systems accounted for 10.7%.

“As for the geographic distribution of the reports of suspected money laundering received from financial intermediaries, the first places are still occupied by Lombardy (18% of the total), Campania (11.6%), Lazio (11.5%) and Emilia Romagna (8%).

“There is an intense ongoing collaboration with the Judicial Authority: in the first half, our body received 96 requests for information from the Judicial Authority.

“On-site inspections and the study of paperwork revealed violations which could be of a criminal nature as well as those which could lead to administrative fines: during this half 10 administrative proceedings were instituted and 55 possible criminal cases were identified leading to 51 charges under Article 331 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and 4 injunctions to assist with enquiries.

“A similarly intense exchange of information has been taking place with the FIU abroad: by way of international information exchange mechanisms (Egmont and FIUNET) UIF received 349 requests for information and made 99 requests itself; of these, 67 were on behalf of the Judicial Authority and 32 were for the financial analysis of reports.

“During this half year, our body has continued preparing and distributing patterns and models of irregular economic and financial conduct, publishing operational advices on the risk of fraud in factoring and on fraudulent international operations and invoicing, given that tax evasion and money laundering are closely linked phenomena.”