There are about three thousand operators active above all in the Centre-North. The balance sheet of the first phase of the start-up of the Gold Buying Registry was established at the OAM, the Body of Agents and Brokers. According to the data of 4 December 2018, 3.004 subjects with over 5.250 declared operating offices are registered. This is the result of a extremely fragmented business world: about 80% declared only one operating site, 16% between 2 and 5, 2% between 6 and 10 and 1% between 11 and 20.Only 15 subjects declared a number of operating sites between 20 and 100 and the member with the highest number declared 377.
57% of the subjects declared that they carry out Buy Gold operations as their main activity, as opposed to the remaining 43% who carry it out as a secondary activity. Only 2,2% of the requests were rejected by the Body: in most cases due to the failure to present the certificate issued by the Police Headquarters, with territorial jurisdiction, on the possession and continued validity of the license for precious objects. Applicants will be able to resubmit the application if in the future they meet all the required requirements. In fact, the legislative decree establishing the Registry establishes that anyone who carries out the activity of Buy Gold, in the absence of enrollment in the Registry, is punished with imprisonment from six months to four years and with a fine ranging from 2.000 to 10.000 euros. Therefore, one of the fundamental requirements before undertaking the activity of Buy Gold is to register with the Register. At the moment there are 69 pending proceedings relating to recently presented requests and another 26 are suspended for the checks required by law by the Body.
The Gold Buying Register was established by Legislative Decree 92/2017 which aims to ensure full traceability of the sale and exchange of used precious objects and to prevent illegal purposes, with reference to money laundering and the reuse of proceeds from illegal activities. Furthermore, the decree established that the Register must have a subsection for the competent authorities, in which the sanctions for violations of the anti-money laundering legislation will be noted.
The Regions where the operating offices declared by the registered Gold Buyers are most present: Lombardy 17%, Lazio 10%, Piedmont 9%. Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Sicily and Campania 8%. Finally, Tuscany 7% and Puglia 6%.
