Phrased the way a buy-side acquirer would phrase it: you acquire the entity, not the licence as a standalone item. The transaction is structured as a share purchase of the company holding the Banca d’Italia authorisation, with prior non-objection under the qualifying-holdings regime in Articles 19 to 25 TUB, applied to IPs by cross-reference in Article 114-undecies. Cadena Brokers does not list targets publicly and does not represent sellers. We work for the acquirer; the entity opens up under NDA after the initial fit conversation, and the change-of-control filing runs in parallel with target negotiation.

Three tiers under Article 114-novies TUB, transposing Article 7 PSD2. EUR 20,000 if the institution provides only money remittance. EUR 50,000 if the institution provides only payment-initiation services. EUR 125,000 if the institution operates payment accounts, executes credit transfers and direct debits, or issues and acquires payment instruments — the tier covering most acquirer use cases. Own funds are maintained continuously above the higher of that floor and the figure produced by one of the three PSD2 calculation methods. Active issuers most commonly fall under Method B, the volume-linked formula.

A qualifying-holding notification filed under Articles 19 to 25 TUB, the general regime applied to IPs through Article 114-undecies. Thresholds are 10%, 20%, 30%, 50%, plus any move that hands the buyer control. Banca d’Italia assesses fit-and-proper standing of beneficial owners and the proposed members of the consiglio di amministrazione, financial soundness and source of funds, group-structure transparency, the strategic plan for the IP, and AML/CFT integration. The assessment clock under the Joint Guidelines is sixty working days from a complete file, extendable by thirty working days in defined cases. Banca d’Italia consults the home supervisor of any EU-regulated acquirer. The completeness gate, not the substantive review, is what stalls unprepared filings.

Yes. A Banca d’Italia–authorised IP passports across the EU 27 plus the three EEA member states under Articles 28 and 29 PSD2 by Banca d’Italia notification to the host competent authority. Both cross-border services and establishment of branches, agents, and distributors are available. Common host markets for Italian IPs include Spain, France, Germany, Romania, and the Western Balkans — corridors that match Italy’s commercial and migrant geography. The notification is administrative; it is not a second authorisation file in the host country.

The qualifying-holdings clock is sixty working days from a complete file, extendable by thirty working days in defined cases. Practical wall time depends on file completeness rather than Banca d’Italia throughput. A buyer arriving with prepared fit-and-proper documentation, audited acquirer accounts, sworn Italian translations of foreign-language source documents, and a clear strategic plan typically clears the file inside the statutory clock. Buyers who file incomplete papers face the completeness gate, not a substantive disagreement with Banca d’Italia. Cadena Brokers does not publish closing-timeline guarantees because supervisory clocks are not ours to commit; we file expedited where the brief allows.

Both are Banca d’Italia–supervised under Title V-bis TUB and both passport across the EEA under PSD2. The IP (Istituto di Pagamento) provides payment services from the PSD2 list — credit transfers, direct debits, money remittance, payment-initiation, account-information services, issuing or acquiring of payment instruments. The IMEL (Istituto di Moneta Elettronica) does all of that and additionally issues electronic money under EMD2 (Article 114-bis TUB), which means it can hold customer balances on a stored-value basis. An IP cannot. If the acquirer’s post-close thesis includes issuing prepaid wallets, virtual IBANs as e-money accounts, or branded card programmes on a stored-value basis, the IMEL charter is the right perimeter; if not, the IP is the cleaner fit at lower capital and lower governance overhead.