L’Unità di Informazione Finanziaria per l’Italia (UIF) ha pubblicato il nuovo numero della propria newsletter contenente una breve analisi delle attività svolte nel primo semestre 2022 con riferimento alle Segnalazioni di Operazioni Sospette (SOS).

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF-GAFI) has published amendments to its AML/CFT Guide for the real estate sector.

Real estate is a popular choice for investment, but it also attracts criminals who use real estate in their illicit activities or to launder their criminal profits. It allows criminals networks to thrive and grow using the profits of their illegal activities, which impacts society and undermines the rule of law.

FATF assessments show that the real estate sector often has poor understanding of these risks and regularly fails to mitigate them.

The revised Risk-Based Approach Guidance for the Real Estate Sector highlights the importance for the sector to increase its understanding of the money laundering and terrorist financing risks it faces.

Vulnerabilities include exploitation by politically exposed persons, the purchase of luxury real estate, the use of virtual assets, the use of anonymous companies and gatekeepers as instruments to launder the proceeds of crime.

The sector needs to take appropriate measures to adequately mitigate these risks. This includes effective customer due diligence measures, such as access to information about the true, beneficial owner(s) of the real estate transaction.

Stakeholders should work together to prevent criminals from abusing the real estate sector and market, including through cross-border cooperation and action.

Published in the Official Journal of European Unione of 26 July 2022 the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1302 supplementing Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives and procedures for applying for exemption from position limits.

In particular, the Regulation aims to improve the stability and integrity of financial markets in the Union by specifying a methodology to calculate position limits for commodity derivatives in a harmonised manner.

The methodology should prevent regulatory arbitrage and promote consistency whilst providing competent authorities with sufficient flexibility to take into account the variations among different commodity derivatives markets and the markets in the underlying commodities.

The methodology for calculating the limits should allow competent authorities to balance the objectives of setting limits at a level sufficiently low to prevent persons holding positions in those commodity derivatives from abusing or distorting the market against the objectives of supporting orderly pricing and settlement arrangements, developing new commodity derivatives and enabling commodity derivatives to continue to support the functioning of commercial activities in the underlying commodity market.

Financial and non-financial entities may be able to apply for the exemption in relation to hedging of commercial activities before entering into a position.

The application should give the competent authority a clear and concise overview of the commercial activities of the non-financial entities in respect of an underlying commodity that are intended to be hedged, the associated risks and how commodity derivatives are utilised to mitigate those risks. Position limits apply at all times to agricultural commodity derivatives and to critical or significant commodity derivatives, and should the exemption ultimately not be granted by the competent authority, the financial or the non-financial entity, as the case may be, should reduce any position in excess of a limit accordingly and could face supervisory measures in respect of a breach of a limit.

Financial and non-financial entities should be able to apply for the exemption in relation to positions resulting from the mandatory provision of liquidity on trading venues before those transactions are undertaken.

The application should give the competent authority a clear and concise overview of the mandatory liquidity provision framework under which those persons operate, the person’s activities in the trading of commodity derivatives in accordance with the written agreement entered into with the trading venue and of the resulting open positions.

In both cases of exemption, activities should be periodically reviewed to ensure that the continued application of the exemption is justified.