I bearer passbooks I'm almost at the end of the line. Bank ones such as postal ones still in circulation will have to be extinguished or converted by 31 December 2018. Pay attention to the times, because you risk a lot: anyone who shows up at the bank with a bearer passbook from 2019 January XNUMX onwards will be reported by the institute to the Ministry of the Economy, which will be able to apply a fine ranging from a minimum of 250 to a maximum of 500 euros.
All of this happens through the Legislative Decree 90 / 2017, which transposes the European directive on savings, aimed at combating money laundering and the hidden financing of terrorism. It is the same provision that since 4 July it has prohibited the issue of new bearer passbooks.
With the new deadline, which concerns savings books issued before 4 July, an instrument widely used in Italy by families disappears definitively, especially as a form of deposit for the savings of minors.
“To inform and sensitize customers on what to do in view of the next deadline of December 31st the ABI invites all those who still have bearer passbooks to go to the bank in the next few days, by checking the opening hours of the branches of its reference branch, to carry out the extinction within the terms established by law and avoid any sanctions”, reads a note from the Italian Banking Association.
What changes, then, from next year? Simple: only registered savings accounts can be opened. This means that the procedures will inevitably become more complicated, because the postal or bank employee will have to identify the payee.
In the last budget of Poste Italiane passbook accounts are still worth 119 billion euros, but – luckily – most of them are now nominative.
