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Italy selects KPMG to worth digital payment platform PagoPA, sources state

Italy's Treasury has actually picked accounting firm KPMG to put a price on PagoPA, a business managing digital payments to the public administration, as it prepares to sell the business to the state mint and postal service Poste Italiane, people near the matter said.

The possibility of PagoPA altering hands, though it would remain under state-controlled entities, has spread alarm in Italy's crowded banking sector, where numerous small lenders are struggling to stay up to date with fast modifications in the payments sector.

Banks look with concern at the increasing presence of non-bank digital payment companies such as Apple, Google-owner Alphabet or PayPal, and worry that Poste could utilize PagoPA to reinforce its position in the digital payments market.

The appointment of KPMG is nevertheless a crucial action in a task that will see Poste ending up being a minority shareholder in PagoPA, the sources stated, asking not to be called due to the sensitivity of the matter.

All included celebrations decreased to comment or were not available for comment.

Poste is a monetary corporation that has actually expanded beyond its core service into payments, smart phone services and energy supply, as well as insurance and investment products.

PagoPA, which deals with banks enabling lenders to give their customers access to its services through electronic banking, this year dealt with payments towards Italy's public administration worth 46.66 billion euros ($ 50 billion).

The payment firm is also set to play a leading function in Italian federal government efforts to establish IT Wallet, a digital wallet where Italians will have the ability to save both official documents, consisting of proof of their digital identity to access public services online, but likewise payments.

To attend to competitors concerns, the government-backed job avoids Poste from accepting governance contracts that would enable it to exercise a dominant impact over PagoPa, in which the state mint will be the majority shareholder.

(source: Reuters)