Bancomat invests 30 million in the fintech payment revolution

Agreement with Sia for a technology hub. Alliance with Poste on card payments. The "cashless beaches" plan for the summer. Here is the strategy of Italian fintech ante litteram

Bancomat Pay Technology drives digital payments in Italy. Today they are worth a third of the total, according to the findings of the Digital Payments Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, but the numbers are destined to grow, thanks to innovation that allows an ever greater dialogue between device and current account. Bancomat, an Italian company symbol of withdrawals and payments, in the first six months of the year recorded transactions for a value of 46 billion euros (+ 47% compared to the same period of 2020), with an average ticket 38 euros and with cahsless payments that they are worth 38% of transactions (doubled in one year).

Bancomat in its industrial plan has allocated 30 million euros for new technological solutions to be implemented and in recent weeks has announced a partnership with Sia for the development of a technological hub for digital payments. The memorandum, Oscar Occhipinti, Bancomat's marketing and commercial director, explains to Wired, “will allow us to accelerate our ability to innovate. Having a closer relationship with Sia gives us the opportunity to be strong and fast in releasing our solutions ready for the European market as well ”.

Bancomat, an ante litteram fintech

The relationship between Bancomat and digital technology dates back to the nineties, when the company launched the Pago-Bancomat which allowed you to pay an account without the need to have cash. A revolution for the time, fintech ante litteram.

Oscar Occhipinti (Photo: Bancomat) "Today - explains Occhipinti - innovation in payment tools can be divided into three blocks: there is contactless which started some time ago and has now taken hold; there is NFC technology transported to mobile phones and devices through a tokenization process; and then there is Bancomat Pay which is a totally digital mobile only product ".

Bancomat Pay is an application to download to your phone that allows you to make payments in the store and online, but unlike cards, it also allows you to exchange money in real time or pay a merchant directly via the app.

"The transaction takes place because the dematerialized card number is associated with the customer's phone number and the Iban of his current account", underlines Occhipinti. The app, already present in the home banking of major credit institutions, is on the smartphones of 11 million people in Italy and 110,000 shopkeepers already accept payments via Bancomat Pay as well as 10,000 ecommerce merchants (including Pago Pa).

Cashless beaches to promote digital

In the battle between banknotes and cashless, Bancomat cheers for digital payments. "Of course - says Occhipinti -, cash is still legal currency and the use of banknotes cannot be completely eliminated", also because Italy is a multi-faceted country and technology and connectivity are not everywhere. To speed up the spread of payments without cash or cards, Bancomat will launch an initiative dedicated to 'cashless shores' in the summer.

"We wanted to bring our presence where people will have fun in the summer and we are building a partnership with some beaches where we will position real cashless areas to buy everything only with the phone - highlights Occhipinti - . It is an experiment that we want to do to show how simple it is to pay with your mobile ”.

In the future of Bancomat there is the desire to work on three guidelines to make payments ever easier, faster and safer. “First of all - says the manager - we are pursuing a path that aims at the total digitization of the whole system, from point to point so that we can make a difference in terms of speed and safety. In the meantime, we will continue to expand the pervasiveness of ATMs, to make the system more and more widespread ".

An example is the partnership with Poste Italiane which concerns card and digital payments, giving rise to an aggregation of 60 million cards and 30 million apps which will consist in the issuance of new enabled Poste Pay cards. to payments and withdrawals on Bancomat circuits and in the integration of the Bancomat Pay service into the Postepay app. Third point, comments Occhipinti, the financial education of customers. "There is the strong idea of ​​working on education, the need arises from the fact that the first point for which people do not use electronic tools is information: they do not trust the tools and - he concludes - they do not know the technology. ".


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Topics

Finance Fintech Digital payments globalData.fldTopic = "Finance, Fintech, Digital payments"

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