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Italy (IT) · Module Detail

Italy: Scheme & Network Compliance

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Italy operates fully within SEPA/SCT Inst and the EU Instant Payments Regulation (Reg. (EU) 2024/886); Banca d'Italia operates TIPS and Verification of Payee became mandatory eurozone-wide from 9 October 2025.

Horizon · 2025-01-09 (± a quarter)Instant Credit Transfer PSP obligations under IPRIn force · Tier 1 source
Horizon · 2025-01-09 (± a quarter)Instant Credit Transfer PSP obligations under IPRIn force · Tier 1 source
Standing sub-brief · as of 5 July 2026102 words · last cycle 2026-09-04

Scheme & Network Compliance

Italy's own submission to the OECD competition committee shows the merged Nexi/SIA processing entity holding roughly 70-75% of Italian card-processing share and 90-95% of non-SEPA clearing share, following the 2021 Nexi/SIA merger; the AGCM has flagged an exclusivity arrangement between Nexi and equensWorldline as a live competition-policy concern. The near-monopoly processing and clearing concentration is a standing scheme-access risk factor for competing acquirers.

Periodic update · new data 2026-09-08

Scheme & Network Compliance

Italy's scheme and network compliance picture this cycle is anchored in the full operationalisation of the EU Instant Payments Regulation. Instant Credit Transfer obligations under Regulation (EU) 2024/886 have applied to Italian PSPs since 9 January 2025, a Confirmed-confidence finding drawn from a Tier-1 Banca d'Italia primary source, requiring Italian payment service providers to offer and receive instant credit transfers at parity with regular transfers rather than as an optional premium service.

The practical effect of this mandate against Italy's payments history is considerable. Instant payments made up just 1.2% of 2023 transaction volume despite the scheme having been available in Italy since 2017, a Probable-confidence, Tier-3-sourced finding reflecting Italy's persistently strong cash preference relative to other EU markets. The Instant Payments Regulation removes optionality from this equation: with the mandate now structurally binding on both bank and non-bank PSPs, Italy's historically low adoption share is expected to close through regulatory compulsion rather than organic market development, a Probable-confidence key judgment supported directly by the mandate and the adoption-gap finding together.

This scheme-compliance shift sits alongside, but is distinct from, the correspondent-settlement reachability requirements addressed under W12; the W4 finding here is specifically about the PSP-facing obligation to offer instant transfers at parity, while the settlement-infrastructure mechanics by which those transfers clear sit under the correspondent-banking module.

Outlook

The primary watch item is whether updated adoption-share data emerges showing the extent to which the mandate has closed Italy's historical 1.2% instant-payments adoption gap. Any divergence between mandate compliance (offering the service) and genuine usage uptake (customers choosing instant transfers) would be a material signal for the scheme-compliance trajectory going into the next cycle.

Sources and findings (4)
  1. T2https://one.oecd.org/document/DAF/COMP/WD(2025)36/en/pdf Applies beyond this jurisdiction (OECD)retrieved
  2. T3https://interchangefeeseu.com/countries/interchange-fees-in-italy Applies beyond this jurisdiction (OECD)retrieved
  3. T3https://developer.nexi.it/en/servizio-ecommerce/ Applies beyond this jurisdiction (OECD)retrieved
  4. T2https://one.oecd.org/document/DAF/COMP/WD(2025)36/en/pdf Applies beyond this jurisdiction (OECD)retrieved