MILAN (Reuters) -Poste Italiane is considering introducing an annual management fee for users of its digital identity service, analysts wrote in their daily reports on Friday following a briefing with the company’s management.
With around 20 million active digital identity accounts, the move could generate up to 100 million euros ($116.75 million) in additional operating profit for the state-backed financial conglomerate, Intermonte and Akros analysts wrote in their report.
Poste declined to comment.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
The fee would mark a shift for Poste, which has so far offered these services free of charge. The change comes as other providers have begun charging for digital identity services.
CONTEXT
Sistema Pubblico di Identità Digitale (SPID) is Italy’s public digital identity system, used for accessing a wide range of government and private services online. Poste is the largest SPID provider in the country.
($1 = 0.8565 euros)
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina. Editing by Jane Merriman)
