Payment institutions may provide a number of ancillary services without the need to obtain an ad hoc authorization, including: granting of credits related to the provided payment services, provision of related or operative services and management of payment systems. Entities normally performing other kind of business can provide payment services only if authorized by the Bank of Italy. In this case, they shall comply with some specific requirements, including the maintenance of a dedicated asset in relation to the provision of payment services and ancillary services.
Additional comments regarding the legal situation for payment services or what FinTech’s must be aware of in this business area
Payment institutions established in another EU Member State can provide payment services in Italy under the European passport regime by establishing a branch or also under the regime of the freedom to provide services in the EU. In this case, the legislation of the home country shall generally apply. In particular, the establishment of a first branch or the provision of services under the regime of the freedom to provide services in the EU must be preceded by a communication to the Bank of Italy submitted by the competent authority of the Member State where the payment institution is established.
The recently enacted rules implementing the EU Directive 2015/2366 on payment services (“PSD2”) and Regulation 751/2015 on interchange fees for card-based payment transactions (“IFR”), brought further innovation into the local legal landscape (see Legislative Decree no. 218 of December, 15th 2017 – “PSD2 Act”).
The PSD2 Act indeed introduced amongst other: rules on open banking, new payment services and relevant providers, and stronger means of customer authentication.
The PSD2 Act also sets out new rules on payment oversight, mainly related to regulatory reporting duties (e.g. sales and telephone firms are required to file with the Bank of Italy certain data on the payments executed)
Along with the Competent Regulatory Authorities, notably the Bank of Italy, a key role in the local market for payment services marketing and distribution is played by the Body for Credit Broker and Financial Agents (Organismo Mediatori Creditizi e Agenti in Attività Finanziarie - “OAM”).
The OAM is a self-governing body ultimately supervised by the Bank of Italy, that sets out specific regulations on the selling of financial services including payment ones and, most recently, also cryptocurrency and e-wallet services. Under the Italian rules transposing the MiCA Regualtion (see infra), any crypto-assets service providers enrolled with the OAM had to file for a new licence by 30 June 2025, in order to be fully entitled to carry out crypto-assets services in Italy. There has however been issued a post-ponement, granting the crypto-assets service provider to keep their OAM registration up to 30 June 2026 (see Decree Law No. 95/2025).
Lately, the ongoing implementation of the MiCA Regulation into the Italian system (see infra) exposes some interplays between payment institutions’ and crypto-assets service providers’ regulatory frameworks notably in the field of e-money issuance (see the Bank of Italy’s Notice dated 30 June 2025).