BOC denies illegal activity in Italy

Bank of China Ltd, the country's fourth-largest State-owned lender, denied on Tuesday it had received any formal documents from Italian prosecutors about investigations into alleged money laundering at its Milan branch.

Media reports suggested that Italian prosecutors have accused the bank along with 297 individuals - mostly Chinese citizens living in Italy - of transferring around $5.1 billion, earned illegally there, to China.

They claimed nearly a half of the money was transferred between 2006 and 2010 via the bank's Milan branch, using the Money2Money transfer service.