Investire | July August 2025
Today, the battle for the hearts and savings of Italians involves three service models: financial advisor networks, commercial banks, and challenger banks.
It’s worth noting that these three service models have, so to speak, crossed swords only relatively recently.
Commercial banks have, in fact, lived for years—in some cases centuries—off the rents derived from their monopolistic presence on the market.
Financial advisor networks, much younger, born in the late 1970s, have only entered the fray in the last twenty years and only become true protagonists in the last ten.
Challenger banks, often born as fintech startups, represent a service model born in the wake of the digitalization of banking in the early 2000s.
That said, the top spot in the rankings sees financial advisor networks and commercial banks vying for the top spot, while challenger banks languish in the rear, reaping only the crumbs of a market with enormous, yet untapped potential.
With Italians’ investable financial wealth having more than doubled in the last twenty years, approaching €4 trillion, specialized players—financial advisor networks and private banks—have overtaken commercial banks, conquering the upper-affluent and private client segment.
Commercial banks are certainly not sitting idly by, and despite losing relative market share, they still hold an absolute majority.
Challenger banks, on the other hand, are a bit like direct insurance in the insurance sector: they were supposed to revolutionize the market at their inception, yet they have remained unfinished business, with a market share that barely reaches double digits.
And all this because the asset management business in Italy, more than in other parts of the world, is based on a central and indispensable assumption: the centrality of the professional in the human relationship with the client.
Of course, it is essential that the professional, be they a financial advisor, a private banker, or an employed bank manager, be adequately supported by a platform and an advanced digital ecosystem (app, website, web collaboration, etc.), but digital is not sufficient to win the game.
This evidence comes from challenger banks or so-called fintech, some relatively more successful like Moneyfarm, others—the majority—still lagging behind, like Tinaba.
While we wait to see whether major international digital players like Revolut, or other foreign banks like BBVA with their digital platforms, will be able to grow in our market, one fact remains: without valuable professionals in the relationship with savers, you won’t get very far.
Commercial banks have also understood this, as demonstrated by the increased emphasis on the role of bank managers dedicated to affluent customers, which is being pursued by both market heavyweights (Intesa and UniCredit), as well as local mid-sized banks (Bper, Credem, Monte dei Paschi, Banco BPM), and the large international groups operating in Italy (BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank).
The real breakthrough could come from those who are first able to not only develop but also empower their professionals by equipping them with superior (artificial) intelligence and highly personalized digital platforms.
Nicola Ronchetti