New legislation issued on 25th June 2008 and definitely confirmed on the 6th August 2008 has now repealed the main tenet of new Italian provisions against money laundering, which only came into force on the 30th April 2008.

The legislation issued last April provided that no payment in cash could be effected for any amount exceeding Euros 5,000. This legislation has now been repealed in the name of "simplification" and the old overall limit of Euro 12,500 has been reinstated.

The net result of all this legislation is that no payment can now legally be effected in cash in Italy for an overall amount of more than Euro 12,500. Where this limit is exceeded, penalties will apply.

Any payment exceeding this amount must be effected by bank transfer, Italian banks must be instructed in writing, and the funds must be made available to the payee within the following three days.

Under current legislation Italian banks will now continue to issue "a/c payee only" (Non trasferibili) cheques (Assegni bancari) and bankers` drafts (Assegni circolari) (which effectively means that they can only be cashed by the named beneficiary and cannot be transferred to third parties), unless otherwise expressly requested. As before, it will be possible to obtain cheques which may freely be endorsed over to third parties (Assegni trasferibili), subject to the overall limit of Euro 12,500. The rule that these "Trasferibili" cheques are subject to a Euro 1.50 stamp duty tax (Imposta di Bollo), will however remain unchanged.

On a transfer / endorsement of a "Trasferibile" cheque it will still be necessary to state the full name of the individual or corporate beneficiary, however it will no longer be necessary to quote the relevant Italian tax code (Codice Fiscale).

The same overall limit of Euro 12,500 will also apply to "bearer" bank or postal deposit accounts and passbooks (which are equivalent to cash as they can be transferred from one person to the other by simple delivery, with a duty to notify the bank within the following 30 days).

Italian professionals have now also been discharged from the requirements of earlier legislation, which prevented them from accepting cash payments in excess of stated amounts and required them to pay all their professional income into a designated bank account.

Italian banks and professionals are still under a strict duty to identify their clients (Obbligo di adeguata verifica della clientela) and to keep such records for 10 years.

Where any suspicious transaction comes to their attention, professionals in Italy still have a duty to report it (Segnalazione di operazioni sospette) either to their professional bodies or to the relevant Italian authorities.

After all this, the changes to earlier Italian legislation against money laundering are not substantial, "plus ça change plus c` est la meme chose" (the more it changes the more it is the same thing...).

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