Sanctions to Russia - joint press release by Bank of Italy, CONSOB, IVASS and UIF

On March 8, the Italian supervising authorities Bank of Italy, CONSOB (Italian Stock Exchange Authority), IVASS (Italian Insurance Supervisory Authority) and UIF (Italian Financial Intelligence Unit) issued a joint press release requesting the supervised entities to comply with the restrictive measures adopted by the European Union in response to the Russian military aggression in Ukraine.

The measures are available on the websites of the Official Journal of the European Union, of the European Council, of the Financial Intelligence Unit - UIF and of the Financial Security Committee. 

In the joint press release, the Authorities highlight that the measures – adopted by the European Union through Regulations and Decisions – are binding in their entirety and are directly and immediately applicable in each of the Member States. The supervised entities are therefore required to comply with them, to put in place the necessary controls and systems, and to constantly monitor the update of the measures.

Furthermore, for the purpose of fulfilling the disclosure obligations of the freezing measures applied to designated (i.e. sanctioned) subjects, the supervised entities shall also take into consideration the indications provided by UIF through the press release of March 4, 2022 (which can be seen at https://uif.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/comunicati/documenti/Comunicato_UIF_obblighi_comunicazione_ misure_di_congelamento_russia.pdf) 

In the current situation, supervised entities are recommended to exercise the utmost care, in particular with reference to the risk of cyberattacks, and to intensify monitoring and defense activities in relation to possible malware activity. 

Moreover, supervised entities are invited to carefully consider the business continuity plans and to ensure the correct functioning and prompt restoration of backups.

Finally, the supervised entities are invited to pay constant attention to the updates provided by the Computer Security Incident Response Team - Italy (see https://csirt.gov.it/contenuti?tags=Ucraina)

The press release is available at the following link: https://www.ivass.it/media/comunicati/documenti/2022/ivcs538.pdf