INTESA SANPAOLO: THE AFC DIGITAL HUB IN TURIN
AGAINST FINANCIAL CRIMES, IN COLLABORATION WITH
INNOVATION CENTRE, UNIVERSITY, POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY AND CENTAI

• AFC Digital Hub aims to become a national and international centre open to other financial institutions and intermediaries in the system. Its goal is to combat money laundering and terrorism through new technologies and artificial intelligence.
• Carlo Messina: “AFC Digital Hub can support Italy's application as the location of the future EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority, catalysing the arrival of highly qualified investments and resources and accelerating the Country's innovation and digitalisation process”.
  

Turin-Milan, 24 June 2022 – Intesa Sanpaolo announces the establishment of the AFC Digital Hub (Anti Financial Crime Digital Hub) in Turin. The consortium will focus on combating financial crimes through new technologies and artificial intelligence. Partnering in the initiative will be Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Centre, the University of Turin, the Polytechnic University of Turin and CENTAI (Centre for Artificial Intelligence, the new research institute dedicated to artificial intelligence participated by the Bank).

Intesa Sanpaolo has always invested in new technologies and expertise to prevent and combat financial crimes. Its new 2022-2025 Business Plan sets out interventions to further strengthen monitoring systems, adopt increasingly advanced internal models to capture potentially suspicious transactions, increase the use of artificial intelligence and ensure the constant cooperation with Italian and European authorities and leading scientific and industrial partners.

AFC Digital Hub aims to become a national and international point of reference for combating money laundering and terrorism. In order to pursuit this goal, its members intend to open it to other financial institutions and intermediaries in the system.

 The use of artificial intelligence will enable the AFC Digital Hub to develop innovative solutions and models for detecting suspicious phenomena attributable to illegal activities. The Hub's scope of analysis, initially focused on phenomena related to money laundering and the fight against terrorism, could in the future be extended to the interception of market abuse and fraud situations, which have common elements in terms of the logic of detecting suspicious transactions.

The potential offered by the new technologies will enable Intesa Sanpaolo and the banks and companies that will subsequently choose to join the consortium to increase the effectiveness of risk monitoring, make management processes more effective and set new quality standards in all areas of activity.

The Board of Directors, which will be chaired by Piero Franco Maria Boccassino, Group Chief Compliance Officer of Intesa Sanpaolo, will include: Stefano Geuna, Rector of the University of Turin; Guido Saracco, Rector of the Polytechnic University of Turin; Francesco Bonchi, Scientific Director of CENTAI; Maurizio Montagnese, Chairman of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Centre; Massimo Proverbio, Chief IT Digital Innovation Officer of Intesa Sanpaolo; Raffaele Cosimo, Head of the Central Anti Financial Crime Department of Intesa Sanpaolo. The General Manager will be Valerio Cencig, Head of Compliance Digital Transformation at Intesa Sanpaolo.

“With the signing of the deed of incorporation of AFC Digital Hub, we have begun a process that will lead us to collaborate in synergy with some major Italian players in the scientific, technological and academic fields in the fight against digital financial crimes, which are unfortunately growing steadily around the world” , commented Carlo Messina, CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo. “AFC Digital Hub can support Italy's application as the location of the future EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority, catalysing the arrival of highly qualified investments and resources and accelerating the Country's innovation and digitalisation process”.

Media Relations

Intesa Sanpaolo

Corporate & Investment Banking and Governance Areas

stampa@intesasanpaolo.com