Fintech & payments regulation in Italy (2026)

Yes. To provide electronic-money or payment services in Italy you need authorisation as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI), supervised by the Banca d'Italia, under the EU E-Money Directive (2009/110/EC) and the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

The Banca d'Italia.

Application and supervisory fees that vary by country (often €5,000–€25,000), plus safeguarding and audit costs.

Typically roughly 3–12 months; the regulator has up to 3 months to decide once the application is complete.

The application file centres on programme of operations listing each payment service you will provide; business plan with a three-year budget forecast; evidence of the €350,000 initial capital; governance arrangements and internal-control mechanisms; plus fit-and-proper evidence for directors and qualifying shareholders.

Incorporate in the member state and establish real local substance (registered office and part of the business conducted there). Build the application file: programme of operations, three-year business plan, governance, AML/CFT, safeguarding and security policies. The authority then assesses the file and, once authorised, you can begin operating.

Yes — an EMI authorisation passports across the whole EEA (all 27 EU states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein).

Banca d'Italia licenses and supervises PIs and EMIs; payment services are reserved to banks, PIs and EMIs. Applicants must file articles of association, a business plan and organisational description, and Banca d'Italia rejects applications where sound and prudent management or the proper functioning of the payment system is not ensured.

EMIs require minimum initial capital of €350,000 and a prescribed corporate form. Payment institutions have graduated capital thresholds depending on services offered: €20,000 for money remittance, €50,000 for payment initiation services (PIS), and €125,000 for the full range of PSD2 Annex I payment services.

PSD2 was transposed by Legislative Decree 218/2017 (in force 13 Jan 2018), amending the Italian Banking Act. It licenses Account Information Service Providers (AISPs) and Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISPs), mandates strong customer authentication, and requires account-servicing PSPs to expose dedicated APIs — a market practice largely implemented through the CBI Globe gateway covering most Italian banks.

Under EU Regulation 2024/886 (Instant Payments Regulation), PSPs offering ordinary SEPA credit transfers in Italy have been required to receive instant credit transfers since 9 January 2025 and to send them since 9 October 2025, when Verification of Payee (VOP) also became mandatory. Banca d'Italia operates TIPS as the pan-European settlement platform for instant payments in euro.

Banca d'Italia has clarified that most BNPL arrangements qualify as financing under national banking law, so licensing, AML and disclosure duties apply when the lender is not the merchant. The EU Consumer Credit Directive II (CCD2) extends consumer-credit rules — pre-contractual information, creditworthiness assessment — to most BNPL from November 2026.

Banca d'Italia's Regulation of 23 July 2019 sets 'Supervisory Provisions for Payment Institutions and Electronic Money Institutions', covering governance, outsourcing of important operational functions and ICT/security risk management; DORA (EU 2022/2554) applies to Italian PIs and EMIs from 17 January 2025.