(Finance) – In first semester of 2023 the Financial Intelligence Unit for Italy (FIU) of the Bank of Italy received 77,693 reports of suspicious transactions (SOS), with an increase of 4.7% compared to the same period of the previous year and analyzed and transmitted 78,219 SOS to the investigative bodies, up by 7.7% compared to the first half of 2022. The number of SOS analyzed exceeded the number of those received, thus reducing the stock of SOS being processed.
The trend of reports during the observation period indicates a return to moderate increments compared to the corresponding period of the previous year (+4.7%), after the peak recorded in the second half of 2022
Overall, the prevailingincidence of the banking sector (54.5% of the total reports sent in the half year), although down by 3.6 percentage points compared to the first half of 2022. The growth in reports was driven by other intermediaries and financial operators (which went from 21,682 reports to 23,160), by gaming service providers (from 4,878 to 6,289) and by notaries and CNNs (from 2,344 to 3,540).
In particular, the contributions provided by the electronic money institutions (IMEL), equal to 31.3% of reports not attributable to banks and post offices, and by payment institutions (IP), equal to 25.0%. On the other hand, there is a decrease in the contribution provided by insurance companies (-26.7%) and by subjects who carry out the activity of custody and transport of valuables (-37.9%), although with relatively limited changes in absolute terms.
The contraction, recorded starting from 2022, of SOS from the sector of the goods also continues money transfer (equal to 7,339 units in the period considered), down by a further 2.5%; almost a third of these reports relate to transactions with counterparties located in Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines and Romania.
During the six-month period, reports referring to online operations I am more than doubled, up to covering more than 10% of the total; on the other hand, a decrease was recorded for transactions carried out abroad (-28.7% compared to the previous period).
L’total of transactions reported amounted to approximately 52 billion euro (of which 49 relating to transactions actually carried out), values substantially in line with those of the first half of the previous year.
In the period considered the Unit adopted 14 suspension orders of suspicious transactions for a value of 3.2 million euro.