Sia spa

In 1977, a collective of Italian financial institutions, including the Banca d'Italia and the Italian Banking Association (ABI), founded Società Interbancaria per l'Automazione, or SIA. The goal was to build a shared technological infrastructure to automate and streamline the country's interbank payment systems. Throughout the 1980s, SIA established the Rete Nazionale Interbancaria (National Interbank Network), which became the digital backbone connecting Italian financial institutions. The company was instrumental in launching the Bancomat debit card system in 1983 and introducing POS payments in 1987, fundamentally modernizing how money moved in Italy. The company's journey was marked by strategic evolution. In 1999, SIA merged with Cedborsa, expanding its focus to include the automation of Italian financial markets. Another significant step was the 2007 merger with SSB (Società per i Servizi Bancari), a company SIA itself had spun off in 1992 to specialize in electronic money services. This integration broadened its expertise across the entire payments value chain. A pivotal moment arrived in October 2020, when a merger with Nexi, another major Italian pay-tech company, was announced. The all-share deal, valued at around €15 billion, aimed to create a dominant European player in the digital payments industry. The merger officially became effective on January 1, 2022, combining SIA's robust infrastructure services with Nexi's merchant-facing solutions to form one of Europe's largest fintech groups.