The Financial Banking Arbitrator, an organisation for the out-of-court settlement of disputes between banks and customers, last year took over 12.500 decisions which in the majority of cases (56%) ended with favorable outcome to customers. This can be read in the report on the ABF's activity in 2025, released by Bank of Italy.
Bankitalia and appeals to the Financial Arbitrator
Banks and other intermediaries have therefore reimbursed almost 8 million to customersThe rate of compliance with the Arbitrator's decisions remained at high levels, around 94%, a percentage which however does not take into account the disputes related to the employee loans in which banks often "resist" the Arbitrator's decisions. Last year the appeals received by the ABF showed a slight decrease compared to 2024 (-3%) even if there was a recovery in the flow of new appeals both in the second part of the year and in the first months of 2026.
Furthermore, the use of the Banking and Financial Arbitrator system continuesartificial intelligence: in fact, an experimentation of techniques is underway machine learning algorithm e text mining to facilitate the investigation process, and a generative artificial intelligence project has been launched to optimize the semantic search and decision synthesis, in full respect of the decision-making autonomy of the Colleges.
Bank of Italy: The results of the report on complaints
The main evidence emerged instead from the Report on complaints are as follows: in 2025 the Bank of Italy received approximately 13.000 complaints, in 8% increase Compared to the previous year. Excluding reports on matters outside the institution's jurisdiction, in approximately half of the cases, customers' requests were fully or partially granted by banks, financial institutions, and other supervised operators, thanks in part to the intervention of the Bank of Italy.
Reports relating to the current accounts represented the highest share of complaints (31% of the total). The main critical issues concerned the blocking of account operations, often linked to checks money laundering, and problems connected with the hereditary successions.
Reports continue to increase regarding scams (+2% compared to 2024), which represent 6% of the complaints received. The incidence of Fraudulent operations However, it remains very low compared to the total number of electronic payments made.
Reports of scams carried out through the improper use of the name, logo. or the identity of authorities, including the Bank of Italy, including through artificial intelligence-based tools. To strengthen prevention, the Bank of Italy has intensified information and financial education initiatives aimed at the public.
