MILAN (Reuters) – The Bank of Italy said on Tuesday it had banned the local unit of online German bank N26 from taking on new customers after checks late last year flagged money laundering risks.
Italy’s central bank said N26 was also prohibited from offering new products and services, such as cryptoassets, to existing clients.
“The Bank of Italy adopted such measures following inspections, conducted between Oct. 25 and Dec. 17 2021, which highlighted significant shortcomings in complying with anti-money laundering regulation,” it said.
“N26 took measures to remedy such shortcoming,” the central bank added in a note. “The Bank of Italy reserves the right to assess the anomalies have been fully overcome, before considering revising the current decision.”
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)
