An Italian IMEL issues, distributes and redeems electronic money and provides the full PSD2 payment-service catalogue across the 27 EU and EEA Member States under the EMI passport. The acquirer steps into an existing book and an existing supervisory file at the Banca d’Italia, rather than running a multi-year de novo application. Service scope is set by Article 114 quater and following of the Italian Banking Act and the Banca d’Italia Disposizioni di vigilanza; the practical reach is the entire single market from a Milan or Rome head office.

Yes. The qualifying-holding regime applies to all proposed acquirers regardless of domicile, with the assessment focused on reputation, financial soundness and the absence of supervisory or enforcement issues in the home jurisdiction. Non-EU acquirers should expect closer attention to ownership transparency and source-of-funds documentation, and in some structures a parallel review under Italian foreign-direct-investment screening. Cadena scopes both workstreams at the term-sheet stage so they run in parallel rather than in sequence.

Yes. Authorisation by the Banca d’Italia carries the EMI passport under Directive 2009/110/EC and PSD2, which means the acquirer can passport e-money issuance and payment services into any other EU or EEA Member State by branch, agent or freedom-to-provide-services notification. The home-state supervisor remains the Banca d’Italia. This is one of the structural reasons acquirers prefer an Italian licence over an out-of-EU equivalent: one supervisory relationship, twenty-seven markets.

Statutory minimum initial capital is EUR 350,000, held in eligible own-funds form on the Italian balance sheet at authorisation and continuously thereafter. Capital adequacy under ongoing supervision is then a function of the IMEL’s actual exposure: outstanding e-money in issue, payment-volume own-funds methods (Method A, B or C under PSD2), and any credit granted in connection with payment services. Acquirers should plan for a post-closing capital top-up where the existing target sits close to the floor and the new business plan implies higher volumes.

Six core dimensions, each with its own evidentiary file. Reputation of the acquirer and any qualifying shareholder. Financial soundness of the acquirer, with audited statements and a source-of-funds chain. Fit-and-proper assessment of incoming directors and key-function holders. Group structure, including ownership transparency through to UBOs. Whether the proposed structure permits effective consolidated supervision. And the post-closing business plan, with its capital, governance and operational implications. The Banca d’Italia assesses these in the round; the acquirer prepares the file so each dimension is answered before it is asked.

Mandates change continuously and the live shortlist is shared only under NDA. As of this writing the Italian book is concentrated on a small number of authorised IMELs whose shareholders are open to a strategic exit; some carry crypto-asset service ambitions inherited from the pre-MiCA period, others are pure e-money and payments. Reach out via the contact form with a one-paragraph summary of the acquirer’s intended use-case and we will revert with redacted profiles where there is fit.