Mortgages today are increasingly bought from home and with a smartphone

Mortgages and loans, but also current accounts and payment cards are increasingly obtained without going to the bank branch. If the smartphome is now the digital channel of choice for consumers (~60% active customers), the PC with internet banking also continues to hold its position, which will remain constant in the coming years (~35%). These are the effects of an evolution in consumer habits that, thanks to technological innovation increasingly pervaded by artificial intelligence that improves service levels and the personalisation of offers, is driving Digital Lending, now a strategic pillar for the future of financial services. While volumes are strongly accelerating, especially for solutions such as Buy NowPayLater (+71% CAGR '20-'25), the effect of a preference for more flexible payment solutions, driven by e-commerce, more complex products such as mortgages are also showing growth, albeit more moderate (+19% CAGR '20-'25). These are some of the main findings of the second Digital Lending Observatory, which combines market analysis from Monitor Deloitte, Cetif's academic expertise and data from SIC (Credit Information System) and Experian data sources.

Online banking in Italia is growing at an average rate of 3.4% in the period 2020-2025 but its penetration is still lower than in other European countries, driven by mobile banking to the detriment of Internet banking, due to a historically capillary physical banking network, a more mature demographic structure (EU country with a higher average age) and a traditional preference for cash, dynamics that are however rapidly evolving. What has certainly changed is the range of banks that nhas increased in recent years. The number of banks offering products that can be subscribed to via Digital Onboarding is characterised by a particularly strong growth in mobile, self-banking oriented digital offerings, alongside digital branches focused on value-added activities and physical networks. There is also a digital expansion for the simplest transactions, with evolution to complete digital solutions even for the most complex products (e.g. mortgages).

According to the Observatory in terms of volume, the penetration of the digital channel in lending has exceeded expectations, amounting to 24% in 2025 compared to an estimated 18%. Looking ahead, growth is expected in all areas of lending, with estimates (revised upwards) in the region of ~41% of total lending by 2030. For instance, the 10.6 billion disbursed for mortgages via the digital channel is expected to become 19.1 billion in 20230, while the 13.9 billion disbursed for personal loans is expected to become 26 billion. The incidence of the online channel is growing in loans and mortgages, increasingly driven by incumbents responding to evolving consumer needs with increasingly digital-first offers. All credit segments show higher average online fees compared to traditional physical channels and growth compared to historical values, a sign of this channel's focus on more affluent customers. Mortgages, for example, reflect the value of the property and show comparable tickets between the digital and physical channels (132 thousand versus 121 thousand euro).

In line with Observatory 2025 forecasts, Gen Y has closed the gap with Gen X, becoming the main segment for all digital credit products, with the exception of special purpose loans. The North, characterised by higher average incomes, is the area with the highest concentration of demand for digital credit, particularly for mortgages, thanks to a higher spending capacity and ease of access to credit, The upper segment concentrates 36% of digital mortgage requests, confirming the structural selectivity of the product also in the digital channel. While, also by virtue of the growth between 2020 and 2025 (+13 p.p.), Bnpl is the only product to be more widespread in the South, an area with a lower concentration of wealth and where traditional products struggle to penetrate.

From 2020 to 2025, defaults decline across all products and channels, thanks in part to the use of AI solutions for risk assessment (e.g. credit scoring), with digital benefiting from the ability to trigger preventive actions in a more timely manner. defaults in the digital channel declined significantly closer to the physical channel, remained slightly higher on personal loans (2.6% vs. 2.2%), and mortgages (1.2% vs. 1.0%).