Interview with Il Sole 24 Ore - Fabrizio Burlando “We want to make BANCOMAT the digital currency of Italians”

“The brand is there and it is strong but it needs to be refreshed: we want to make BANCOMAT the digital currency of Italians, the product that will summarize all the methods of payment and use of money, from ATM withdrawal to payment on POS, from e-commerce to the transfer of money between individuals to the payment of bills.” Fabrizio Burlando, born in 1974, is the new CEO of Bancomat, the company that has been managing one of the best-known and most widespread withdrawal and payment circuits in Italy for 40 years, with about 3 billion transactions managed in 2023 and about 30 million cards in circulation in our country. An electronic engineer with an MBA from Insead and specializations at Yale and LSE, Burlando has twenty years of experience in the digital payments sector, gained mainly in the last 16 years at Mastercard, where he has held roles of increasing responsibility at a global level, focusing on data platforms, value-added services and support for the development of bank customers and users around the world.
Starting today - since yesterday the new board of directors appointed him to head in place of the outgoing Alessandro Zollo - however, he has a non-trivial task: that of modernizing and relaunching a brand known (but tarnished) as Bancomat, a historic reality, with over 100 associated banks, which must deal with the challenges of a market, that of payments, in a very strong evolution, between the challenge of big Tech and the competition of other operators.

To implement this FSI project, the fund led by Maurizio Tamagnini has so far invested 75 million euros (with the prospect of rising to 100 million), becoming its first shareholder with 42.9 percent. Alongside FSI, there are four banks (Intesa Sanpaolo, Iccrea Banca, Banco Bpm and Bper), underwriters with FSI of a shareholder agreement that controls a total of 74.7% of Bancomat's capital. The growth prospects, Burlando explains, are there. “Italy is an extremely interesting market - explains the manager to the Sole 24Ore - With 400 billion euros in euros traded, our country still has a very low penetration of digital payments and ample space for development: just think that only 40% of transactions pass through electronic instruments against 80% of the Nordic countries.” But the other reason that led him to accept the challenge is prospective. “Payment circuits are now infrastructures considered fundamental by individual countries for interconnections between banks, and are therefore of strategic importance.”

What will be the development guidelines, and the potential links with a market undergoing strong transformation, will be seen. But what Bancomat needs, as mentioned, is a turning point in terms of digital innovation. In recent weeks, the group chose Nexi as a strategic partner for the centralized infrastructure platform (application center). “It is a project that I fully embrace: it will allow the use of a domestic payment circuit in line with the best standards, with low costs and the possibility of providing a quality solution to make it the digital currency of Italians,” Burlando points out. Is it possible that in order to accelerate the digital front, the company is looking at M&A transactions?

“We have a fair amount of fresh capital available. This will therefore allow us to carry out Fintech operations, within the Italian perimeter. We want to acquire skills complementary to ours that will help us complete our offer.” This does not exclude, on the other hand, the possibility of looking abroad, but more “with a view to partnership - says the manager - We are evaluating the most interesting solutions that help to aggregate various brands in a logic of interoperability, as is already the case with Spain and Portugal”. In the background, the issue of the shareholding structure remains: the entry of FSI was approved by most of the more than 100 shareholder banks, but UniCredit, which attended the last shareholders' meeting and which has a minority advisor in the new Board of Directors, has not entered into the pact. What do you think about it? “Bancomat looks at the entire market - underlines Burlando - Many banks believe in our project, others have decided to stay at the window, but I am sure that there is space for them to come with us. Ours is a plan that looks at everyone.”