ROMA (ITALPRESS) – “Innovative technology investments in the two-year period 2023-2024 carried out by non-bank banks and intermediaries amounted to approximately one billion euros and “a similar amount is estimated for the next two-year period, for an increase of 1.4%. The expenditure is very concentrated among a few intermediaries and banks are the main investors in innovative technologies.” This is what we read in the report on the results of the fifth Fintech Knowledge Survey conducted by the Bank of Italy during 2025.
“Payments, credit intermediation and operational activities remain central (88.5% of the total)” while “the weight of the payment area decreased significantly in favour of operational activities. Web-mobile platforms, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and Application Programming Interface (API) confirm the most adopted technologies” and “enhancing the impact of cloud computing and AI-generative projects (GenAI)” while “reducing API and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) are read in the report.
“While the online acquisition of customers is widespread, indicating an extended use of digital channels, the provision of loans and the collection of completely online deposits are limited. The deposits held in open accounts digitally account for 5.1% of the deposits at the end of 2024” and “the relationship between digital loans and total loans granted to consumer households and businesses is equal to 10.6 and 1.2% respectively.”.
The report points out that “the collaborations for the adoption of innovative technologies between intermediaries and IT service providers are widespread and fragmented: the most recurring agreements affect technological suppliers, fintech companies and other supervised intermediaries, but without dominant actors. Compared to the survey of 2023, the value of investments in technological enterprises has risen from 1.1 to 1.8 billion. Digital strategies are adopted by intermediaries to intercept changes in the habits and the anagraphic composition of customers and in response to obsolescence phenomena of IT infrastructures” and “they mainly aim to improve customer experience and the efficiency of internal processes”.
The IAI, in particular the GenAI, “is increasingly at the centre of initiatives, especially in the field of operational activities and credit intermediation, facilitating the automation of internal processes and simplifying operational flows; Moreover, it contributes to enrich the offer of digital services to customers, through the chatbots through which products and offers of advice and assistance are recommended. crypto-activity, on the other hand, remains at the margins of digital strategies.”.
For Bankitalia, “the main obstacles to the realization of digital strategies are confirmed to be the difficult finding of qualified personnel and the poor interoperability between new technologies and legacy systems. The governance of digital strategies is more structured (with coordination, reporting and control mechanisms) at intermediaries with major investments. Only one part of the operators uses Performance Key Indicators to monitor digital transformation, focusing on indicators that measure customer engagement and digital revenues.”.
The digital skills at intermediaries, “both in the board of directors and for all staff, are still uncommon; in particular in the context of AI medium-high skills are present at 3.4% of intermediaries”, reads again. “It strengthens the use of innovative technologies in anti-money laundering, especially for identity verification, where predominantly digital signatures and identities, and transaction monitoring and analysis of suspicious reports supported by AI and Big Data analytics tools.”.
The impact of new technologies on the risks of customer protection is considered “consistent: the possibility to continue using traditional methods of contact with operators and to preserve human interaction in automated processes would help mitigate the risks of financial exclusion”. However, “the risks of financial exclusion of users with low digital skills or discrimination of bands of the most vulnerable population,” the report concludes.
-Photo IPA Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
