Banca d'Italia has imposed a €390,000 administrative fine on Olinda SAS, the French legal entity operating under the Qonto brand, for a series of anti-money laundering and suspicious transaction reporting failures. The penalty, imposed by a decision dated 1 July 2025 and published by Banca d'Italia on 29 September 2025, follows an on-site inspection of Qonto's Italian operations conducted between January and April 2024, carried out pursuant to Legislative Decree 231/2007, Italy's primary legislative framework for AML and counter-terrorism financing compliance.
Qonto is a Paris-based B2B neobank offering business accounts, payments, and expense management services to small and medium-sized enterprises across Europe. The inspection was carried out at Qonto's Italian branch between 29 January and 19 April 2024.
FINDINGS
The regulator found deficiencies in client profiling, customer due diligence, and record-keeping.
Banca d'Italia also found that Qonto had failed to file suspicious transaction reports with the UIF, Italy's financial intelligence unit, in respect of operations that were potentially suspicious. The regulator also found shortcomings in 'active cooperation' (collaborazione attiva), the Italian AML term for the obligation to detect and report suspicious operations to the UIF.
PENALTY
In setting the penalty, Banca d'Italia said it took into account the seriousness of the irregularities and the remedial action already taken by the company. A separate €60,000 fine was imposed on Olinda SAS the same day for transparency breaches.
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