Italian competition authority interrupts migration of 2.4m Intesa Sanpaolo accounts to Isybank
The Autorita’ Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) has interrupted Intesa Sanpaolo’s plans to migrate 2.4 million customer accounts to its digital banking offering Isybank.
AGCM intervenes in Intesa Sanpaolo’s Isybank migration
The Italian competition authority says the bank must gain the express approval of account holders before completing the migration after more than 5,000 of its own customers sought the regulator’s intervention.
The bank launched its app-only digital banking unit in June using Thought Machine’s Vault core, and migrated 300,000 current accounts to the offering in October.
However, the AGCM says in a press release (translated to English from Italian) that this switch meant that customers no longer had access to bank branches or desktop-based internet banking, or some of the services they provide.
Notably, the watchdog claims that Isybank customers can’t use bank cheques or access mortgage contracts, and don’t have the ability to make virtual cards for online purchases. Their entire interaction with any remaining services remains strictly limited to the Isybank app.
“These essential changes to the contracts previously concluded were unilaterally imposed without the prior consent of the customers to the transfer having been sought,” its press release reads.
Communications alerting customers to the switch in October were sent during the peak holiday season of August, via the archive section of the Intesa Sanpaolo App, and the AGCM says these were not followed up with push notifications and pop-ups.
Without encouraging customers to actually read the communications, the watchdog claims the bank failed to clarify that customers would have to object to the switch to different services.
In response to this, the AGCM has taken a precautionary measure against both Intesa Sanpaolo and Isybank to assert a “reasonable deadline” for their customers to consent to the transfer before it migrates any more of its 2.4 million accounts.
Those who object are to be able to keep their previous current account and with the same conditions as before.
Intesa Sanpaolo has until 10 December to notify the AGCM of its measures to comply with the new order, and has not returned FinTech Futures‘ request for comment.
