Edited by Fabrizio Vedana

Providers of virtual currency and digital wallet services, falling within the category of other non-financial operators referred to in Article 3, paragraph 5, of Legislative Decree No. 231/2007, are required to comply with customer due diligence requirements, data retention, and the filing of any reports of suspected money laundering. This was clarified by the Guardia di Finanza in response to a specific question posed during the Telefisco 2021 program by Il Sole24Ore.

These conclusions are reached starting from the observation that the European Directive 2018/843 (better known as the fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive) has extended the anti-money laundering obligations to service providers whose activity consists in the provision of exchange services between virtual currencies and legal tender currencies (the so-called exchangers) and providers of digital wallet services (custodial wallets).

The European legislator's intervention included the latter among the obligated entities, starting from the assumption that, since they are not required to identify and report suspicious activity, they could allow the potential misuse of such services for illicit purposes.

In implementation of the provisions of the aforementioned directive, the Italian legislator amended and supplemented Legislative Decree 231/2007, extending anti-money laundering obligations to the two aforementioned categories but leaving the task of establishing and defining the requirements for access to a specific register to a ministerial decree.

Pending the issuance of the aforementioned decree, the Guardia di Finanza is intervening to clarify that, even without registration in the newly established register, exchanges and custodial wallets still have anti-money laundering obligations.

As a result of the above, all individuals who professionally perform the aforementioned activities will consequently have to adapt their rules and behaviors to comply with the legislation combating money laundering and terrorist financing.