Combating international terrorism financing

The Guardia di Finanza is heavily engaged in combating international terrorism financing. The Corps integrates and strengthens the antiterrorism investigative system, mainly based upon the two Italian Police Forces with general competence that conduct traditional repressive action. It develops preventive and collateral investigations on the financial flows that fuel the investments to the benefit of national and international criminal groups.

For the fulfilment of this mission Guardia di Finanza agents process suspicious transaction reports on terrorism financing sent from obliged entities, carriy out controls on the cross-border movement of currency and (upon orders of the committee for financial security) implement freezing measures or automatic halt of the financial and economic assets of suspected members of terrorist associations as indicated in the lists of the European Union or of other international Organizations.

The attention towards the terrorist threat is always high. For this reason, during 2018, the Corps has continued to control the territory from an economical point of view to detect those persons who use payment systems different from banks, verify the typology of money transfers and the existence of previous police records and other elements of interest.

Specific operational guidelines also efficiently regulate the controls on money transfers according to the risk-based approach. The purpose is to grant preventive surveillance on the territory, considering that many sources indicate that this system is likely to be used for money laundering and terrorism financing.