Digital payments in Italy tripled in a decade: cashless advances (slowly), the underground at 10% of GDP

Italy's inexorable process of cashless transformation is proceeding, a steady and significant growth but still at a slow pace. Over the past decade, digital transactions have tripled, from EUR 174 billion to EUR 471 billion, and are now worth over 40% of household consumption - in 2015 it was 17% -, thanks to numerous pro-cashless policies and the growth of payment options such as mobile and wearable payment.

Accomplice also to the Covid 19 pandemic emergency, we have witnessed an overall change in the habits of citizens, merchants and companies that has also driven a strong growth of the cashless payments industry chain, which by 2023 will generate EUR 16.8 billion in turnover, more than doubling in a decade, and support over 34 thousand employees (+20.8%), with an overall impact over the decade in terms of benefits - from cost reduction to industry value to sustainability - estimated at almost EUR 40 billion.

These are the main findings of the Teha Group's Community Cashless Society report, which takes stock of the first decade of its publication, marking a clear improvement on the cashless front, but in a scenario that is still full of lights and shadows. The report emphasises, in fact, how the acceleration in the implementation of cashless solutions is sustained, but still insufficient to reach the European average: at the current Italian and European growth rates, Italy would be in line with the European value of per capita transactions with payment cards in 2038.

According to the Cashless Society Index, which monitors the trend towards the digitalisation of payments at European level, Italy maintains 20th place among EU countries, the highest ever in the index. But our country still lags behind similar economies: Spain is 10th, Germany 11th and France 16th. The cashless transaction is 25% of GDP, compared to 28% of the EU average, and the average amount of a digital transaction is still €11 higher than the average, confirming that there is still ample room for improvement.

This year, for the first time since the Community's inception, Italy has moved out of the cluster of the thirty worst economies according to the Cash Intensity Index, which analyses the incidence of cash in the main national economies, coming in 31st place, an improvement of three positions. But even for this indicator, the current level remains higher than the European average (+1.6 points) and all geographical areas (North America, Central-South America, Asia-Oceania).