Fintech Survey in the Italian Financial System: Intermediaries 2025 (Banca d'Italia)

Summary

• Banks and non-bank intermediaries invested about 1 billion euros in innovative technologies in 2023-2024, with a similar amount estimated for the following two years, an increase of 1.4 per cent.p.9
• Payments, credit intermediation and operational activities remain central, at 88.5 per cent of the total.p.9
• Deposits held in digitally opened accounts represent 5.1 per cent of total deposits at end 2024.p.9
• Digital loans to total loans are 10.6 per cent for consumer households and 1.2 per cent for businesses.p.9
• Medium-high AI skills are present at 3.4 per cent of intermediaries.p.10
• This is the fifth Fintech survey by Banca d'Italia, conducted in 2025.p.7

Key insights

1. Spending is highly concentrated among few intermediaries, and banks are the main investors in innovative technologies.p.9
2. Web-mobile platforms, AI, cloud computing and APIs are the most adopted technologies.p.9
3. The share of projects based on cloud computing and generative AI increases, while that of APIs and DLT falls.p.9
4. The weight of payments has fallen significantly in favour of operational activities.p.9
5. The main obstacles to digital strategies are difficulty finding qualified staff and poor interoperability with legacy systems.p.10
6. Use of innovative technologies in anti-money laundering is strengthening, especially for identity verification and transaction monitoring supported by AI.p.10
7. Collaborations between intermediaries and IT providers are widespread and fragmented, with no dominant players.p.9