The population of OAM members grew in 2018. According to official data, the enrollments in the body for the management of the lists of financial agents and credit brokers increased by 3% compared to the 2017 result, reaching a number of registered students equal to 8.552 subjects.
Enrollments are driven by the category of Agents in natural person payment services, which continued a positive trend already started in 2017. Enrollments in the other categories are stable, with the exception of a slight
decrease of Agents in payment services for legal entities.
The data of the Body chaired by Antonio Catricalà indicate a greater stability of the sector in the last three years: over 65% of the subjects are enrolled in the registers for more than three years (71% of natural person agents, 66% of legal person agents and 69% of mediators). An exception is the category of payment institution agents where the percentage of persons registered before 2015 is 33% for natural persons and 34% for legal persons.
The increase in the number of collaborators was widespread across the board, up by +88% from 2013, going from 7.887 to 14.814.
The mandates communicated by members who at the end of the 2018 amounted to 22.632, an increase of 1.178 units compared to the previous year and with a percentage increase of +1,5%. 54% of the mandates were related to payment services. The mandates relating to the "assignment of the V salary/pension and payment delegations" grew by +144 units and continue to represent the product most present on the market including a 20% share, followed by "Personal credit" at + 15%, from "Mortgages" to +10%, "Financial credit" to +7% and "Motor vehicle and aeronautical leasing" also to 7%.
BUY GOLD
In 2018, the OAM, following up on the regulatory provisions, established the Gold Buying Register which as of 31 December 2018 resulted in 3.103 registered operators, equally distributed between natural and legal persons. This figure is increasing, since the Organization continues to receive applications for registrations. From the declarations received from the applicants for registration, 56% of the members carry out gold buying operations in a "mainly" way while the remainder in a "secondary" way.
SUPERVISORY ACTIVITIES
The supervisory activity of the Body recorded 8.328 checks, an increase compared to 2017. 1.638 sanctioning procedures were initiated, of which 1.045 ended with the application of 860 sanctions and 185 with dismissal measures. 139 cancellation procedures were concluded, but only 52 led to the effective cancellation of the member due to loss of requirements or inactivity exceeding one year.
Of these 860 measures, 617 consisted of written warnings, 214 resulted in the maximum penalty of cancellation (with particular regard to non-payment of the registration fee), 27 in pecuniary penalties and 2 in suspension.
FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL ACTIVITY
With regard to the fight against the abusive exercise of financial activity, in 2018 the Body received reports relating to 76 subjects, also by other Supervisory Authorities. Overall, on the basis of the subsequent verification, 14 complaints were presented to the public prosecutors, also following the OAM and Enasarco inspections. In 2017, 11 subjects were indicted and the Body will appear as a civil party in the related proceedings, as already happened in 2018 for another 5 proceedings.
