Settore dei pagamenti, neobanks e frizioni concorrenziali

The opening of the retail payment services market to new players, at first the FinTechs and then also the BigTechs, has certainly allowed for significant gains in terms of efficiency, competitive dynamism, technological innovation and consumer welfare. At the same time, however, it has also set triggered a series of frictions, between incumbents and newcomers, which on the other hand express a radical diversity of business models. While the relationship between incumbents and FinTechs seems now to be moving towards cooperation, the relationship with BigTechs appears to be much more critical. The essay focuses on the characteristics of the operational scheme of this specific subgroup of neobanks to highlight the risks of market envelopement; rather, the risks of the capture of traditional banking and financial institutions by the web of different digital ecosystems, orchestrated by the so called super-platforms, and to propose a determined action aimed at levelling the playing field, by exploiting from the potential offered by the DMA.