5 notable FinTech partnerships in Italy in 2022

By Gloria Methri

The Italian FinTech ecosystem has expanded exponentially and is attracting investment. In the third quarter of 2022, FinTech investments in the country reached $492 million, bringing the total investment projections for 2022 to $1.35 billion. SMEs, the backbone of the Italian economy, aim to be better served by banks by leveraging FinTech solutions.

Here are 5 notable FinTech partnerships that took place in Italy in 2022:

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank by total assets, has chosen Thought Machine, the UK-headquartered core banking technology company, to power its new digital banking platform.

In connection with this partnership, Intesa Sanpaolo invested £40 million in Thought Machine in February 2022, to become part of the company’s growth story. Intesa Sanpaolo will leverage Thought Machine’s Vault core banking engine to power its new digital banking platform Isybank.

Mastercard, the global payment technology company, and PostePay, part of the Poste Italiane Group, announced in October that they are working to launch a ‘Request to Pay’ (RTP) solution in Italy.

Request to Pay allows invoice issuers to request payment for goods and services digitally and in real time. The payer receives a digital request on their online or mobile device and can then choose to accept it and proceed to the payment method.

French payments giant Worldline aims to increase its presence in Italy with the acquisition of Banco Desio’s procurement activities for around €100 million. The company also announced the establishment of a commercial partnership with the Italian bank, to leverage its network to distribute Worldline’s payment products and services to merchants in Italy.

The agreement builds on Worldline’s previous acquisition of Axepta Italy and the establishment of the Worldline MS Italy joint venture.

In October, European PayTech Nexi and illimity bank entered into a partnership to support SMEs in Italy. Nexi offered its payment solutions on b-ilty, which is illimity’s digital store of financial and credit services for small and medium-sized businesses.

Italian SMEs will now be able to rent or buy Nexis collection products and services by accessing the b-ilty platform. This will allow them to accept a variety of payment options quickly and securely.

HYPE, Italy’s app-based wealth management firm has teamed up with Bitpanda, the investment-as-a-service infrastructure provider to unlock the possibilities opened up by Open Banking.

The partnership allows HYPE’s 1.7 million clients to invest in more than 2,500 assets, including fractional stocks, ETFs and precious metals, with all budget sizes on a 24/7 basis. Bitpanda White Label enables HYPE to design its own trading solution by connecting to the API infrastructure. HYPE is the first unit in Italy to seize this opportunity.

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