The partnership will see vending machines used to settle public administration payments
illimity, a banking group and payment service provider founded by banking veteran Corrado Passera, and Confida, the Italian Vending Machine Association, announce the creation of Pehi, a new capillary proximity network for the use of vending machines to settle public administration (PA) payments. Pehi aims to transform over 830,000 vending machines across Italy into service centres for public administration payments. This initiative combines food and beverage vending with advanced payment and digital service technology, enabling citizens to use vending machines as convenient places to make their pagoPA payments.
Currently, 70,000 vending machines are being upgraded to accept pagoPA payments, making it easier for people to make payments to the public administration from their workplace or during their daily routine. The public technology company PagoPA, which owns the payment platform for the distribution of digital public services in Italy, was the first to use this new network. Pehi’s objectives include the creation of a universally accessible payment channel, a rapid increase in the number of enabled terminals and the expansion of the range of services offered.
The expansion of the services offered by the machines is in line with the growing number of digital transactions recorded by pagoPA, which has an average of 12 million users per month and will see a 53% increase in transactions between 2021 and 2023. In 2023 alone, more than 386 million transactions worth 83 billion euros will be processed via pagoPA. The global vending market comprises 15 million machines and half a billion users. These numbers are expected to grow, highlighting vending machines as crucial access points for various daily services.
Corrado Passera, founder and chief executive officer of illimity, said: “We are pleased to have contributed to the creation of a new, innovative and inclusive proximity network at everybody’s service. Over the past few months we have had the possibility of getting to know the dynamic world of vending machines from close up through some of its protagonists and through Confida, to whom we express our heartfelt thanks. This world has yet to express its full potential, despite the fact that Italy is one of the most advanced countries in this respect.
“A curtain has been raised today on a path with significant growth potential: from now on it will be possible to make public administration payments thanks to the integration with PagoPA, but what is more the range of information and enabling services to be added in the coming months alone will be significantly enriched”.
Image: Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash