Access to banking records: the customer’s right under article 119(4) of the Italian Banking Act

Article 119(4) of the Italian Consolidated Banking Act grants the customer, anyone succeeding to their position on any basis and anyone taking over the administration of their assets, the right to obtain, at their own expense, copies of the documentation relating to individual transactions carried out over the previous ten years. It is a substantive right and does not presuppose pending litigation.

In practice the difficulty lies in the scope of the request: the application must identify the transactions with sufficient precision, while the intermediary cannot simply plead the difficulty of retrieving its archives. A bank’s inaction carries significant procedural consequences, both in evidentiary terms and in reconstructing the balance in disputes over current accounts and credit facilities.

Summary note by the CommercialistiAvvocati network, based on specialised legal and practice sources. The text does not reproduce original contributions and does not constitute professional advice.