The Bank of Italy, by order of 12 March 2019, pursuant to art. 7, paragraph, 2 of Legislative Decree 231/07 and Article 79, paragraph 4 of the Consolidated Banking Act, imposed on the Italian branch ING Bank to refrain from entering into transactions with new customers. Existing customers are not affected by the measure, the press release of the Bank of Italy says.

The Bank of Italy has adopted this measure following verifications of inspections, carried out from 1 October 2018 to 18 January 2019, from which the following findings emerged deficiencies in compliance with anti-money laundering legislation.

ING Bank has indicated that it is already actively engaged in strengthening its overall system of anti-money laundering controls. The commitment to rapidly implement a remedy plan to address and remove the shortcomings of the Italian branch will allow the Bank of Italy to verify that the weaknesses on the anti-money laundering front are fully removed in order to be able to revoke the measure.

According to Il Sole 24 Ore, ING has announced to stop the acquisition of news customers. The bank wants to study the order of the Bank of Italy and therafter draw its conclusions.