Financial cards and payments in 2024: The big picture
Financial cards and payments in Italy has shown a solid performance in 2024, with total card circulation numbers and volume and current value transactions rising at healthy rates. Expansion continues to be underpinned by the increasing tendency of consumers and businesses to move away from cash in favour of card-based and digital payment methods.
Contactless payments via cards, digital wallets and wearables increasingly favoured
In keeping with the trend observed throughout the review period, most financial cards categories in Italy have seen contactless transactions grow at a robust pace in volume and current value terms in 2024. While this payment method has been steadily gaining ground for several years, adoption increased dramatically during the early stages of the pandemic, when fear of contracting COVID-19 made people warier of handling cash.
Digitalisation remains a focal point for investment and innovation
Digital transactions have continued to grow strongly in volume and current value terms across financial cards and payments in Italy in 2024. This is mainly due to the online shopping boom, with the evolving offer of buy now pay later (BNPL) services from e-commerce operators specialising in non-grocery items having a particularly positive influence in this regard.
Competitive landscape
Intesa Sanpaolo, Poste Italiane and UniCredit have remained the top three issuers in financial cards and payments in Italy in 2024. Intesa Sanpaolo continues to hold the overall lead in terms of value transactions, with Poste Italiane claiming the largest share of the total number of cards in circulation.
What next for financial cards and payments?
The outlook for financial cards and payments in Italy over the forecast period is bright on the whole, with total card circulation numbers and volume and current value transactions projected to increase steadily. Usage of cash in the country will continue to fall as busier lifestyles and ongoing improvements in the interoperability of different platforms strengthen appreciation for the convenience of card-based alternatives.
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Overview:
Understand the latest market trends and future growth opportunities for the Financial Cards and Payments industry in Italy with research from Euromonitor International's team of in-country analysts – experts by industry and geographic specialisation.
Key trends are clearly and succinctly summarised alongside the most current research data available. Understand and assess competitive threats and plan corporate strategy with our qualitative analysis, insight and confident growth projections.
If you're in the Financial Cards and Payments industry in Italy, our research will help you to make informed, intelligent decisions; to recognise and profit from opportunity, or to offer resilience amidst market uncertainty.
The Financial Cards and Payments in Italy report includes:
- Analysis of key supply-side and demand trends
- Detailed segmentation of international and local products
- Historic volume and value sizes, company and brand market shares
- Five year forecasts of market trends and market growth
- Robust and transparent research methodology, conducted in-country
This report answers:
- What is the market size of Financial Cards and Payments in Italy?
- What are the major trends key to understanding Financial Cards and Payments in Italy?
- How has COVID-19, recession and macroeconomic volatility impacted the market?
- How long will the market take to recover? What are the opportunities now?
- How will political context and shifting cultural values shape future growth?
- Where is future growth expected to be most dynamic?
Financial Cards and Payments in Italy - Industry Overview
Financial cards and payments in 2024: The big picture
Contactless payments via cards, digital wallets and wearables increasingly favoured
Digitalisation remains a focal point for investment and innovation
Competitive landscape
What next for financial cards and payments?
DISCLAIMER
Charge Cards in Italy - Category analysis
KEY DATA FINDINGS
Italian consumers and businesses still favour charge cards over credit cards
Charge cards increasingly used for contactless transactions
Digital payments via charge cards continue to rise
Healthy growth in transactions and circulation numbers projected for charge cards
Leading issuers expected to increase investment in digitalisation strategies
Expansion of POS infrastructure will continue to boost contactless transactions
Credit Cards in Italy - Category analysis
KEY DATA FINDINGS
Growth in transactions remains robust even as card numbers continue to decline
Commercial credit cards outperforms the personal category in volume growth terms
Innovative payment solutions help to boost credit card usage
Use of personal credit cards will continue rising despite falling circulation numbers
Digitalisation trend set to gain momentum
Commercial category will remain a focal point for investment among issuers
Debit Cards in Italy - Category analysis
KEY DATA FINDINGS
Growth in use of debit cards remains robust despite slowdown
Digital payments via debit cards continue to increase strongly
Issuers and operators work to improve sustainability and inclusivity credentials
Outlook for debit cards remains bright
Debit card usage will underpin further adoption of contactless and digital payments
Debit card services aimed at travellers likely to have strong growth potential
Pre-Paid Cards in Italy - Category analysis
KEY DATA FINDINGS
Open loop category continues to dominate pre-paid cards
Modernisation of public transport fare systems reduces need for closed loop cards
Competitive strategies increasingly shaped by inclusivity and sustainability concerns
Fortunes of open loop and closed loop categories will continue to diverge
Digitalisation trend will remain highly visible in open loop pre-paid cards
Issuers expected to intensify efforts to reduce their environmental footprint
Store Cards in Italy - Category analysis
KEY DATA FINDINGS
Use of store cards in Italy is in long-term decline
Average spend per store card transaction continues to shrink
Carrefour and Esselunga remain the leading issuers
Outlook for store cards remains poor
Development of more flexible products and services could help to boost usage levels
Digitalisation likely to be a key area for investment
The following categories and subcategories are included:
Financial Cards and Payments
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- ATM Cards
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- Commercial Charge Cards
- Personal Charge Cards
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- Commercial Credit Cards
- Personal Credit Cards
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- Commercial Debit Cards
- Personal Debit Cards
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- Closed Loop Pre-Paid Cards
- Open Loop Pre-Paid Cards
- Store Cards
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- ATM Transactions
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- Commercial Charge Card Transactions
- Personal Charge Card Transactions
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- Commercial Credit Card Transactions
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- Average Personal Credit Card Balance
- Average Personal Credit Card Limit
- Personal Credit Card Utilisation
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- Commercial Debit Card Transactions
- Personal Debit Card Transactions
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- Closed Loop Pre-Paid Card Transactions
- Open Loop Pre-Paid Card Transactions
- Store Card Transactions
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- Commercial Card Payment Transactions
- Commercial Electronic Direct/ACH Transactions
- Commercial Paper Payment Transactions
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- Personal Card Payment Transactions
- Personal Electronic Direct/ACH Transactions
- Personal Paper Payment Transactions
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- Commercial Electronic Direct/ACH Transactions
- Personal Electronic Direct/ACH Transactions
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- Commercial Cash Transactions
- Commercial Other Paper Transactions
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- Personal Cash Transactions
- Personal Other Paper Transactions
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- Mobile Proximity Payments
- Mobile Remote Payments
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Financial Cards and Payments
Payments are tracked based on the country of residence / account issuance and include outbound spend while excluding inbound spend.
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This report originates from Passport, our Financial Cards and Payments research and analysis database.
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