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The Italian Country Report is a comprehensive overview of the cards, payments and consumer banking market in Italy, with clearsighted commentary backed by relevant data.
Cash stubbornly remains the primary payment method, yet initiatives continue to be put in place to encourage the uptake of digital payments.
A regulation mandating merchants to accept card payments for transactions above $34 was introduced in 2014, but, lacking penalties, many merchants were unmoved.
Sanctions were set in 2020, which should improve compliance. If successful, there is enormous scope to develop the revolving cards market – both for charge card issuers to expand into revolving cards and for current revolving card issuers to further penetrate the market.
How new regulation is forcing a move from cash to digital payments.
Why prepaid cards are proving so popular.
Which debit card network is losing market share.
How the Italian banking market is reforming to combat bad loans.
What recent change in domestic debit card acceptance could increase usage.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Demographics and the economy
Payments environment
Italian cards market
Mobile payments
Profit pool
The networks
Key retail banks and issuers
Acquiring and processing
Online acquiring
Regulatory and other cards market information
Appendices: Cards Market Data
Appendix I: Demographics and the economy
Appendix II: Payments environment
Appendix III: Cards market
Appendix IV: Mobile payments
Appendix V: Profit pool
Appendix VI: The networks
Appendix VII: Key retail banks and issuers
Appendix VIII: Acquiring and processing
Appendix IX: Online acquiring
Demographics and Economy
Italy has one of the highest life expectancies in the EU (80.5 years for males and 84.9 for females). An ageing population creates multiple problems for public finances.
Payments Environment
Italy is traditionally one of Europe's most cash-intensive economies; combined with its size, this makes it an attractive growth market for digital payments.
Cards market
In a market of over 100 million active payment cards, debit cards are the dominant type, accounting for 56% of all cards in circulation. Prepaid and credit cards account for 28 and 15% respectively.
Mobile Payments
The rise in smartphone penetration in Italy is transforming the way consumers interact with banks and other service providers: smartphone penetration reached an estimated one smartphone per inhabitant in 2019.
Profit Pool
Verisk Financial Research forecasts a fall in profits in 2020 as a result of the ongoing pandemic. Lower spend growth, a decline in borrowing and an increase in default are all likely. The market should recover somewhat in 2021.
Cards Networks
Visa has traditionally been, and remains, the dominant credit card network, with an estimated market share of 55% of cards in issue: 8.6 million. Debit cards are predominantly issued on the domestic networks PagoBancomat and Bancomat.
Key Retail Banks and Issuers
With 505 banks and a large number of non-bank payment card issuers, the Italian payment cards market is fragmented. However, the top five credit card issuers accounted for an estimated 87% of credit cards in issue at the end of 2019
Acquiring and Processing
The Italian acquiring market is mainly concentrated in the hands of Nexi, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit. This trio collectively account for over 80% of acquired billed volume on credit cards.
Online Acquiring
Italy is currently the sixth largest e-commerce markets in Western Europe – and one of the fastest-growing. By mid-2019 the industry had grown by 15% on the same period in the prior year.
Regulatory and Markets Information
Mindful of tax evasion, Rome has set about reducing the use of cash transactions in the country, most recently in the 2020 budget, by strongly encouraging the usage of easily traced transactions via debit and credit card.
3 Italia
ABI Lab
Advent International
Adyen
AEP Ticketing Solutions
Agos Ducato
Agospay
Alipay
Amazon
American Express
Apple Pay
Axerve
B2C eCommerce Observatory
Bain Capital
Banca Carige.
Banca di Genova
Banca Intesa
Banca Intesa Sanpaolo
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
Banca Popolare di Milano
Banca Sella
Banco Ambrosiano Veneto
Banco BPM
Banco BPM
Banco Popolare
Bancomat Pay
BancoPosta
Bassilichi
BMPS
BNL
BNL POSitivity
BNP Paribas
Bonprix
BPM
British Airways
Carrefour
Carrefour
CartaSi
CDP Equity
Cetelem
CheBanca
Clessidra
Comit
Compass
Confcommercio
Conforama
Cornèr Bank
CR Firenze
Crédit Agricole
Deutsche Bank
Diners Club
Discover
ECB
Equens SE
Euronics
Expert
Fastweb
Findale Investments
Findomestic
First Data
FSIA
Google Pay
Hype
Iberia
IBS
ICBPI
Ingenico
Intesa Sanpaolo PAyGO
ISP Processing
Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane
Italian Banking Association
JCB
Jiffy
Mastercard
MatiPay
MDES
MediaWorld
Mediobanca
Mediolanum
Mercury Payment Services
Mercury UK Holdco
Milan Metro
Monese
Monte dei Paschi di Siena
N26
Nexi
Nexi Payments.
PagoBancomat
PagoPA
PAyGO
PayPal
Polytechnic University of Milan
Postamat
Poste Italiane
Poste Mobile
Revolut
Samsung Pay
Sanpaolo IMI
Satispay
Sella
Setefi
SIA
SISAL
Six Payment Services
Società Interbancaria per l'Automazione
Società per i Servizi Bancari
Sparkasse
SSB
Stripe
Superflash
Telecom Italia Mobile
Tiemme
UBI Banca
Unicard
UniCredit
UniCredito
UnionPay
Unipol Banca
Visa
Vodafone
Vueling
WeChat Pay
Widiba
Widiba
Wind
Wise Dialogue Bank
World Wide Fund for Nature
World Wildlife Fund
Worldline
WoW
WWF
XPay
Yap
Yoox
Zalando
Zurich Connect
Reports include detailed market and competitor intelligence on payment cards, e-money, acquiring, retail banking, and consumer credit in Europe. Analysts use primary and secondary source data and conduct in-depth interviews with senior industry executives and finance experts.
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