Edited by Massimo Ferracci

On 10 January 2022, the European Council approved Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/229 of 7 January 2022 amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 supplementing Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as regards the addition of Burkina Faso, the Cayman Islands, Haiti, Jordan, Mali, Morocco, the Philippines, Senegal and South Sudan to the table in point I of the Annex and the deletion of the Bahamas, Botswana, Ghana, Iraq and Mauritius from that table.
The Regulation entered into force last March 13, 2022.

This is the updated list of countries currently in force at high risk of money laundering:

Please note that Legislative Decree 25.05.2017 n. 90 (Published in the Official Journal on 19.06.2017) defines (Art. 1, paragraph 2, letter bb) third countries at high risk of money laundering and international terrorist financing, as follows:
“Non-EU countries whose legal systems present strategic deficiencies in their national regimes for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, as identified by the European Commission in the exercise of the powers set out in Articles 9 and 64 of the Directive.”
The countries listed in the Delegated Regulations are considered high-risk for money laundering, and those subject to anti-money laundering regulations must perform enhanced customer due diligence. In this case, the analysis of counterparties extends to all shareholdings (normally, it limits itself to 25% of the shares held).
The FATF/GAFI has activated upgrading processes for some of the countries included in the aforementioned Delegated Regulations.
It is also noted that Article 24, paragraph 2, letter c) of Legislative Decree 25/05/2017 n. 90 defines geographic risk factors as those relating to:
1) Third countries which, on the basis of reliable and independent sources such as mutual evaluations or public detailed assessment reports, are deemed to lack effective anti-money laundering and terrorist financing prevention measures consistent with the FATF recommendations;
2) Third countries that authoritative and independent sources assess as being characterised by a high level of corruption or permeability to other criminal activities;
3) Countries subject to sanctions, embargoes or similar measures issued by the competent national and international bodies;
4) Countries that finance or support terrorist activities or in which terrorist organizations operate.
The enhanced due diligence procedures (which each bank includes in its own anti-money laundering regulations) are normally:
1. Analysis of the contractual and commercial documentation underlying the transaction (contract, invoices and, above all, transport documents, preferably representative and not merely demonstrative);
2. Counterparty analysis (name, corporate structure, BOD, list control, list of shareholdings, if possible, also balance sheets or financial data – to verify operational continuity – system information);
3. Detailed analysis of the Italian operator involved and, in particular, valorization and updating of the information already acquired.
Enhanced due diligence must be performed before completing the transaction.
The mandatory nature of enhanced customer due diligence is neither debatable nor postponable. It is mandatory to implement it whenever transactions are made to or from countries with a high risk of money laundering.
In my experience, I've noticed that some credit institutions don't perform enhanced due diligence for transactions involving countries with a high risk of money laundering (limiting themselves to merely knowing the Italian operator) or focus exclusively on analyzing the counterparties (so-called subjective due diligence) without examining the merits of the underlying transaction.
Finally, I would like to remind you that it is necessary to carefully track the origin of financial flows by retaining the data, information, and documentation underlying the transaction.