Fake coins through private "writings", Bank of Italy (re)launches the alarm. After an initial warning to citizens issued two years ago, on June 6, 2017, the Italian central bank has once again warned not to “use scriptural coins autonomously created by unauthorized individuals, and not to rely on bodies that claim to operate in such forms of "currency", whose activity can configure hypotheses of sanctionable illegality". The phenomenon has become topical again in recent weeks, so much so that the Bank of Italy itself writes on its website that it continues "to receive communications from individuals who claim to use autonomously created 'scriptural euros', or which concern platforms and self-styled 'monetary bodies' with banking functions that would create 'scriptural money' guaranteed by the Bank of Italy”.
The warning from the institute led by Ignazio Visco comes the day after the news of theFacebook entrance in the world of virtual currencies through the Libra system (which, moreover, is not technically a cryptocurrency, it does not work like bitcoins), but concerns situations such as, for example, writing a "promissory note" in one's own hand, or using forms found on various sites web to create "scriptural euros": all of this, Bankitalia reiterated, has no legal value. It is always worth repeating, but only the ECB produces legal euros, as explained by the rules on the subject which are very clear: "The only form of legal currency - i.e. endowed with the power to extinguish cash obligations - is the currency issued by the ECB, as its creation is based on rigorous procedures which guarantee general confidence in the currency and the stability of its value over time”.
La scriptural money creation by the individual citizen in short, it would end up replicating the so-called bank or scriptural money, a term used to indicate, says Bankitalia, "the set of instruments managed and organized by banks and other entities authorized to provide payment services: cheques, wire transfers, direct debits cards". Those who do so invade a field, that of payment services, which the law reserves only to authorized subjects: banks, e-money institutions, payment institutions. Bankitalia's notice is accompanied by institutional links on the currency and the activity of the European Central Bank and of the Bank of Italy itself.
