Italy Country Report

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Key facts
Payments environment
Cards market
E-commerce
Fintech and mobile payments
Credit card profitability
Networks
Issuers
Merchant acquiring
Regulatory environment

Italy Country Report Data Tables
(All 2016-25F unless otherwise stated)

Appendix I: Demographic and economic indicators

1: Demographic and economic indicators.
2: Ownership of key consumer devices.
3: Internet usage by population.

Appendix II: Payments environment

4: Access points: 2016-23F.
5: B2C e-commerce payment methods: 2016-23F.

Appendix III: Cards market

6: Total card payment metrics.
7: Contactless cards metrics.
8: Credit card numbers.
9: Total credit card metrics.
10: Credit cards profitability indicators.
11: Debit card numbers.
12: Debit card metrics.
13: Prepaid/e-money cards metrics.

Appendix IV: Mobile payments

14: Mobile proximity payment metrics: 2017-25F.

Appendix V: Profit pool

15: Italy market profit pool including credit card numbers, billed volumes, outstandings, interest incomes, net interest revenues, merchant revenues, card fee revenues, other non-interest incomes, total revenues, net credit losses, operating expenses, total expenses, pre-tax profits, merchant service charges, rollover rates, APR, net credit losses to outstandings, operating costs to revenues, ROA (pre-tax profits to outstandings).

(All 2016-25F below unless otherwise stated)

Appendix VI: The card networks

16: Networks' credit card market shares.
17: Credit card interchange fees by network.
18: Networks' debit card market shares.
19: Networks' debit card numbers.
20: Debit card interchange fees by network.

Appendix VII: Key retail banks and issuers

21: Key credit card issuers market shares by credit card numbers: 2018-23F.
22: Key issuers market shares in credit card outstandings: 2018-23F.
23: Key debit card issuers market shares by debit card numbers: 2018-23F.

Appendix VIII: Acquiring and processing

24: Merchant acquirer credit card market share: 2022E.
25: Credit card merchant service charges.
26: Merchant acquirer debit card market share: 2022E.
27: Debit card merchant service charges.
28: Credit card issuer/issuing processor relationships
29: Credit card acquirer/acquiring processor relationships
30: Credit card issuing processor market shares by card numbers: 2022E.
31: Credit card acquiring processor market shares by the number of POS transactions: 2022E.

Payments Environment
Cash remains the preferred payment method for small-ticket items, although the direction of travel is digital. Card payments have grown dynamically, and digital wallets, lifted by instant-payments infrastructure TIPS in recent years, are increasingly popular.

Cards Market
Italy's payment cards market is developed, with a penetration rate of 212 cards per 100 adults at the end of 2022 – of which the majority were debit cards, responsible for over two-thirds of total transactions. The Italian credit card market is geared more towards charge cards and delayed-debit cards than revolving credit cards.

E-commerce
E-commerce sales doubled between 2016 and 2021, driven by successive lockdowns; AAR expects spending to increase during the medium term.

Fintech and mobile
Mobile wallets, too, have grown in prominence. Since the start of the pandemic, Italians have been finding them a convenient way to track their spending and store virtual debit and prepaid cards.

Credit Card Profitability
Credit cards are typically not overly popular among Italian consumers as they prefer to make use of prepaid cards or e-wallets to pay online and use either cash or debit cards at the POS.

Networks
Visa, Mastercard and American Express are Italy's principal networks after Diners Club's leaving the market in 2021. Historically, most issuers here offered credit cards on the Visa network. However, over the past few years, rival Mastercard also signed issuing agreements with major Italian banks, with most banks now issuing cards with no favoured network.

Issuers
Italian banking infrastructure is well developed. However, as in many other EU states, the number of branches has declined. The network of 21,700 branches that existed at the end of 2021 was over twenty-five per cent smaller than it had been five years before.

Merchant Acquiring
The Italian acquiring market is mainly concentrated in the hands of Nexi, BCC Pay and UniCredit. This trio collectively account for about two-thirds of acquired billed volume on credit cards. Nexi's acquisition of Intesa Sanpaolo's payment business in 2020 has bolstered its position as the market leader.

Regulatory Environment
Banca d'Italia is the central bank of Italy; it supports the government's economic policy by maintaining price stability and acts as a supervisory authority to maintain financial stability in Italy.