Placement of funds for Ukrainians abroad in a European bank: Italy

Non-residents looking for opportunities to settle in Italy sooner or later will face the issue of opening a bank account in an Italian bank and placing funds there.

Most often, such a question arises for those who are employed in Italy, since local employers most often transfer wages to an account in a traditional Italian bank.

Those who plan to keep their savings from foreign sources (from online work, sale of property in another country, etc.) and later, for example, buy real estate in Italy, may also be interested in placing funds in an Italian bank.

The first difficulty that non-residents will face in Italy is opening an account.

The basic minimum of the documents that a foreigner must have with him is an identity card on the territory of the country (carta d’identità), a permit to stay in the country/permit for temporary protection in the country (permesso di soggiorno/permesso di soggiorno per protezione temporanea) , as well as the identification tax code in Italy (codice fiscale).

In addition, many banks require the applicant to open an account a document confirming residence in Italy, a document confirming the employment of a person in the territory of this country, and others.

After going through the difficult procedure of opening an account, you should already plan a successful placement of funds on it.

Lawyers of JSC “Prikhodko and Partners” advise their clients to pay special attention to the following aspects:

• Compliance with financial monitoring rules.

In particular, when depositing more than EUR 10,000 in the account, the bank requires the client to provide proper confirmation of the legality of their origin (especially if the person deposits cash in the account).

Such confirmation can be a real estate purchase agreement, a credit agreement concluded between the client and a banking institution, etc., in some cases – documents of foreign exchange transactions.

In some cases, banks may ask the client to confirm the legal import of cash into the territory of Italy (customs declaration);

• Requirements for issuing foreign documents to confirm the origin of funds (if necessary).

Here it is worth understanding that banks will consider only those foreign documents that have undergone the proper legalization procedure in Italy, namely: translated into Italian by a certified translator with notarization of such a translation, or apostilled (if necessary).

It will be important to find out if you need an apostille on your documents, the easiest way to do this is to contact the translation office in your country directly, which can provide such services.

• Service policy of Italian banks.

Today, some Italian banks offer some special services for Ukrainians. In particular, the traditional banks “Unicredit” and “Intesa Sanpaolo” are distinguished by their wide range of services for Ukrainians, but also for other non-residents of Italy.

For those who want to simplify the procedure of opening an account in Italy and placing funds there, you can consider the option of contacting “Poste Italiane”, which also offers banking services that are cheaper than services in other banks, but also somewhat limit the options of non-residents.

Conclusions.

Thus, Italy as a country for placing funds in bank accounts is not a simple jurisdiction.

A large number of requirements regarding documents for opening an account and placing a large amount of funds on it, and strict rules for compliance with financial monitoring require constant attention and significant responsibility on the part of the client.

Qualified lawyers of JSC “Prikhodko and Partners” offer their services on any issues that interested clients may have, in the form of consultations, legal support, and document preparation.