Business accounts: the market is driving supply

“In Italy, entrepreneurship remains a vital force: a new business is launched every two minutes and over 300,000 businesses are registered every year. We are talking about over 6 million VAT numbers registered, equivalent to around 10 per cent of the population: a vast, dynamic market that is still underserved or served only through complex or costly solutions.” These words alone, spoken to Sole24Ore by Nadine Methner, Head of Business Banking Italia at ING, would suffice to explain what is driving Italian and international institutions to step up their efforts to offer services tailored to businesses. However, in addition to the scale of demand, we must not underestimate how this demand has changed over time. “ING,” continues Methner, “already serves business customers globally and offers solutions tailored to VAT-registered businesses in other countries. In Italia, we have chosen to take this step because we are seeing a sharp acceleration in digitalisation and a growing need for more accessible banking services’. The business sector is therefore considered a growth segment that is structurally underserved relative to its potential. A similar view is expressed by N26, which states that “freelancers, self-employed professionals and sole traders represent an increasingly significant part of the Italian economy, and supporting their banking needs remains a priority”.

However, there are also companies set up specifically to serve corporate clients. “Qonto,” explains Lorenzo Pireddu, managing director for Southern Europe, “was born out of a direct frustration: the founders, Alexandre Prot and Steve Anavi, when launching their first business, came up against the limitations of traditional financial management” and “growth in the business segment is therefore not a tactical choice, but the natural expression of this mission”. The result is a company that positions itself as an integrated solution to support entrepreneurs throughout the entire life cycle of their business. For Tot too, “the start-up segment is not a tactical choice; it is at the heart of our positioning”, says COO and co-founder Bruno Reggiani. “49 per cent of companies using Tot are less than three years old, and 23 per cent were established after 2025. The aim is to support entrepreneurs right from the start of their business, with tools that scale alongside them.”

Then there are also those who have taken action in the knowledge that they can meet the demand for borderless operations. As explained by Revolut: ‘Today, companies are redefining the way they operate. From day one, businesses have been selling, hiring and conducting transactions increasingly on an international scale, yet the financial tools they use are fragmented or designed around domestic markets. Companies are therefore forced to use multiple providers for core operational functions, creating unnecessary complexity and operational inefficiencies.”