Pandemic and lockdown have caused i electronic payments, but not only. In the great set of digital transactions, one particular type has grown more than the others: the modality contactless, which allows you to pay by bringing your credit card, debit card or smartphone close to the Pos. Without contact, precisely. This kind of operation has passedfrom 35% of the pre-lockdown period to over 55% of transactions carried out with enabled devices", explained Alessandra Perrazzelli, deputy general manager of the Bank of Italy, in a recent webinair entitled Open finance: the future of banking at your fingertips.
According to Perrazzelli, however, 2020 has also shown that Italian banks must increase investments in innovation: “On the one hand, the impact that the pandemic has had on banks' profitability underlines the need to increase operational efficiency; on the other hand, the change in customer habits is consolidating, increasingly inclined to use advanced digital services and attentive to the speed and simplicity of the user experience”.
The problem is that "not all banks have the necessary skills to face a radical evolution of production processes and distribution channels”, continues the deputy general manager of Bankitalia. "Regarding the composition of the management, the latest available data, relating to the 2019 financial year, confirm that the presence of specific skills on technological issues is limited in the steering body, especially in smaller banks, with potential impacts negative effects on the effectiveness of the board's action in defining the strategic guidelines”.
Also for this reason, last December the Bank of Italy launched "Milan Hub", the innovation center "which intends to represent a physical and virtual place for meeting and collaborating with various stakeholders (market operators, academia, public administration, other institutions) for the promotion of innovative initiatives and with important system”, concludes Perrazzelli.
