An Automatic Identification System—AIS—receiver comprising at least one processing section (PS1, PS2) for synchronizing, demodulating and detecting AIS messages contained in a received signal, said processing steps being carried out separately for a plurality of frequency sub-bands (SB1, SB2, SB3) spanning an AIS channel (CH1, CH2); the receiver being characterized in that: said sub-bands overlap with each others; and said or each processing section is adapted for synchronizing, demodulating and detecting said AIS messages within each sub-band on the basis of timing error and carrier frequency estimations obtained from filtered replicas of said received signal, propagating along respective auxiliary signal paths.