Italy’s biggest digital ID services provider set to introduce annual fees

A state-backed financial and postal services conglomerate in Italy and the country’s biggest digital ID services provider, Poste Italiane, has revealed plans to begin collecting fees for its services.

Reuters reported this development recently, quoting reports of two financial market analysts who said the move could fetch approximately 100 million Euros (US$116 million) for the corporation. There’s been criticism from customers over the proposed fee.

The sum of five Euros per year per digital ID service user has already been mentioned, according to updates from a breakfast meeting held recently by the corporation’s top management team.

The post also included an update about the acquisition process of digital payments platform PagoPA to strengthen Poste Italiane’s digital ID services portfolio. PagoPA’s infrastructure makes it possible for individuals, businesses, and public entities to make and receive payments.

Poste Italiane is the biggest provider of Italy’s digital ID service (SPID). This is a single digital ID system which makes it possible for users to access a wide range of services in government and the private sector.

Per the Reuters report, Poste Italiane has over 20 million active digital ID service user accounts and the idea to introduce fees follows similar moves by other competing companies such as Aruba and InfoCert.

As estimated 39 million people in Italy use a digital ID, and one of the service providers suffered a massive data breach this year.

Article Topics

digital ID  |  financial services  |  government services  |  identity management  |  Italy  |  Poste Italiane  |  SPID