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title: Italy — Merchant Acquiring & Risk | World Payments Monitor
canonical: https://payments.gi/jurisdictions/italy/w8/
publisher: Asymmetric Intelligence

### W8 Merchant Acquiring & Risk Probable confirmed 2026-07-04

Nexi is Italy's leading merchant acquirer, offering PCI-DSS-tiered integration paths (hosted page, SAQ-A iFrame, SAQ-D server-to-server) via its XPay gateway; the wider acquiring market blends Nexi/SIA-legacy processing with major bank acquirers (Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, Banco BPM) and international players (Adyen, Stripe) operating via EU passporting. High-risk verticals such as gaming and crypto face materially stricter PSP onboarding and compliance scrutiny.

Standing sub-brief · as of 5 July 2026 92 words · last cycle 2026-07-04

#### Merchant Acquiring & Risk

On Nexi's XPay e-commerce gateway, PCI DSS compliance burden scales by integration model: a hosted payment page requires no merchant certification, an SAQ-A-compliant iFrame integration carries a lighter self-assessment burden, and a full server-to-server integration requires SAQ-D certification. The choice of integration model directly determines PCI DSS compliance cost and audit burden for Italian e-commerce merchants on the country's leading payment gateway.

#### Outlook

This is a dated, vendor-documentation-sourced finding rather than a live rule change; no regulatory shift to Italy's merchant-acquiring PCI DSS framework was identified this cycle.

no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief

** Sources and findings (4)**

1. T3 [https://developer.nexi.it/en/servizio-ecommerce/](https://developer.nexi.it/en/servizio-ecommerce/) retrieved 2026-07-04
2. T3 [https://payatlas.com/countries/italy-it](https://payatlas.com/countries/italy-it) retrieved 2026-07-04
3. T3 [https://www.bitpace.com/blog/payment-gateways-for-businesses-in-italy/](https://www.bitpace.com/blog/payment-gateways-for-businesses-in-italy/) retrieved 2026-07-04
4. T4 [https://capitalblueprint.substack.com/p/nexi-spa-in-depth-financial-analysis](https://capitalblueprint.substack.com/p/nexi-spa-in-depth-financial-analysis) retrieved 2026-07-04