The Italian bank says A/I’s account showed no previous anti-money-laundering concerns—but fears U.S. secondary sanctions could endanger services for 130,000 customers and members.
What follows is a English language translation of Banca Etica's (Ethical Bank's) public statement on the Austistici/Inventati Collective. You can find the original article on their website in Italian.
Autistic/Invented: Banca Etica strongly condemns the use of counterterrorism tools to target political opponents. Evaluations are underway to prevent the closure of the bank account following A/I's inclusion on the US list of terrorist organizations.
Tuesday, September 1, 2026
On Friday, August 28, 2026, news was released of the U.S. administration's decision to include the Italian collective Autistici/Inventati in the OFAC lists , as part of targeted actions to " counter the growing threat posed by violent far-left terrorist groups ." Autistici/Inventati is a Tuscan collective that develops independent IT services and provides email addresses, websites, blogs, and newsletters to other activists and collectives. The Autistici/Inventati association has been a Banca Etica account holder since 2018: the account has always been in good working order without raising any concerns regarding money laundering, so much so that it remains within the medium risk profile. Following the US administration's decision to include A/I among the terrorist organizations, Banca Etica contacted Autistici/Inventati to inform them that, in effect, the Bank is forced to raise its risk profile and temporarily suspend the operations of the current account pending further investigation and it is unfortunately likely that it will soon be forced to close it.
Banca Etica is currently contacting the banking trade organizations (ABI; Assopopolari) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance to determine whether there are viable solutions that would allow Banca Etica to maintain the operations of Autistici/Inventati's current account without jeopardizing the operations of Banca Etica's other 130,000 customers and members. Banca Etica is also seeking further technical opinions to assess the scope of action allowed by the US measure.
In the absence of any pronouncement or guidance from Italian and European institutions on how a bank can protect itself in such cases, an Italian bank maintaining relationships with an OFAC-listed entity could be subject to "secondary sanctions" that would involve the cessation of all services provided by US intermediaries. This would mean that all Banca Etica customers would be unable to use credit and debit cards (which currently rely on a substantial monopoly by US operators) and would be unable to make payments in non-euro areas, which almost always require US financial intermediaries. Such an operational blockade would cause intolerable harm to the bank's customers and jeopardize the very survival of the bank.
Ethical Bank:
- strongly condemns the use of OFAC listings for political purposes and the imposition of related sanctions outside of strict compliance with the original mandate of these measures, which were created to prosecute criminal and terrorist activities
- calls once again and more forcefully for European and national political institutions to combat the abuse of these instruments, so that European citizens and organisations are not the target of improper use of these sanctions ;
- Stresses the need to mitigate the impact of the current dominance of global digital financial infrastructures by large US operators, since the extreme interdependence of banking systems makes this type of unilateral sanctioning initiative de facto binding on European operators as well, even when it presents unlawful aspects that harm European citizens or entities.
These are crucial issues for democracy and respect for human rights, on which Banca Etica, together with the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks , has been seeking answers from Italian and European institutions for months, ever since the US added the UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories and the judges of the International Criminal Court to the OFAC lists. Banca Etica will continue to do its part to stimulate international and institutional mobilization to end this unacceptable practice of targeting those whose political views differ from those of the current US administration, equating them with terrorists and effectively excluding them from the financial system.
