Edited by Fabrizio Vedana

The first half of the year has passed and issues related to the Covid emergency have also been protagonists in the anti-money laundering plan.

Indeed, on February 11th, the Financial Intelligence Unit published a detailed communication detailing further risk factors and signs of potential illicit activity that had emerged as a result of the ongoing health emergency.

Compared to what was already foreseen in the previous communication of 16 April 2020, the UIF has identified three new patterns of anomalous behaviour concerning:

1) transfers of tax credits resulting from incentives granted to mitigate the effects of the pandemic;

2) conduct that distracts non-repayable grants or loans backed by public guarantees;

3) online transactions via the Internet, e-commerce and the risk of cybercrime and fraudulent activities.

However, the establishment of the beneficial owners' register has come to nothing: the draft regulation prepared by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, after having substantially passed the Privacy Guarantor's review, has suffered a setback before the Council of State. In a detailed note dated March 19, the highest administrative justice authority asked the Ministry of Economy and Finance to make a long series of amendments and additions to the regulatory text.

The decree that will establish provisions regarding the activities of providers of virtual currency services (so-called exchangers) and digital wallet services referred to in Article 1, paragraph 2, letters ff) and ff-bis) is still stalled.

Meanwhile, however, other important regulatory needs have emerged, starting with the definition of a comprehensive regulatory framework for the so-called cryptoasset sector. The President of Consob called it a new Bretton Woods during the annual meeting with the financial market.

The European Commission's proposal on Digital Finance, which is structured into three legislative measures, also moves in this direction. The MiCar introduces specific regulations for the market of cryptoassets other than financial instruments; the Regulation Pilot which will allow the national authorities (for Italy, presumably, Consob) to test the performance of the functions of signals e post-trading on a single trading platform, to initiate the creation of a secondary market for financial instruments in the form of digital token; Dora, with a more specific focus on cybersecurity and aiming to raise cybersecurity standards in the financial market across the Union.

Autumn, at least normatively speaking, is very warm: let's rest but, if possible, also take advantage of it to devote ourselves to some good reading about the changing world.