The growth in the use of cards, bank transfers and ATMs by Italians does not stop. Data from the Bank of Italy, referring to 2022, certify the increasingly massive presence of digital in the behaviour and infrastructure of the banking and financial sector. Also for this reason the sector is increasingly reducing the 'physical' branches or is transforming them into consulting points or other. A trend towards immaterial and digital that the Covid crisis has accelerated and that is changing the Italian landscape centered, either for cultural heritage, or for the vast presence of the economy in 'black' or 'gray' in different areas of the country, on the wide use of cash.
Net of the increasing spread of fintech apps on smartphones, smartwatches or bracelets, scrolling through the tables released by the central institute shows how transactions with credit cards (corporate and personal) last year rose again. Their turnover exceeded the threshold of 100 billion at 101 billion euros, although the number of active cards decreased slightly to 13.4 million. Debit cards (including ATMs) strengthened their leadership from 60.9 million to 63.4 million. The value of payments grew to about 224 billion against 184 in 2021 (+21%) and to these must be added just over 30.4 million prepaid, a typical Italian phenomenon And then there are the transfers: in 2022 their turnover grew to just over 9 thousand billion euros.
