One out of four, the 26%. It is the share of digital payments in Italy according to a recent survey by Bain & Company on the eve of Milano Finanza Digital Week, living without cash. Is this an encouraging fact? More or less. In the rest of the EU the percentage is almost twice, 46%. In Great Britain 70%.

Although Italy remains in the EU’s last positions, it is speeding up. Digital payments grow by 10% per year from 2015 and we have the necessary infrastructures, for example the contactless devices that you can buy tickets with by metro in Milan. This means investments by banks, fintech, and companies like SIA. The race, or perhaps it would be better to call it marathon, has just started.

We have many competitors started from the starting line, especially because of the Psd2 regulation that opens this sector to third parties, not only banks, but also to the Silicon Valley protagonists, let's think about the recent advent of Libra, the digital currency of Facebook.

Between new players and old institutions, the competition in this race seems ruthless. The departure for Italy has been slow, as shown by the data just mentioned, all that remains is to see how the race pace of Italian consumers will be.