Why the Bank of Italy Blocked the Fintech Company Lemonway

Bank of Italy has ordered a ban on undertaking new operations in Italy: “in particular, the ban on entering into agreements with new partners for the provision of payment services through the relevant platforms, such as Lemonway, on offering new products and services to customers, as well as on opening new payment accounts for customers who operate on the currently affiliated partner platforms.”

This is what can be read in the email that the fintech company Lemonway sent to its customers in the last few hours. Bank of Italy has in fact intervened, preventing the fintech from expanding its customer base. As reported in Milano Finanza , at the moment there do not appear to be any restrictions on the accounts of current customers.

Lemonway, what does the fintech company do?

Founded in France in 2007, Lemonway is a partner of numerous Italian crowdfunding companies and manages transactions for more than 200 platforms in 29 European countries. As we write, its social pages and website have not yet been updated with respect to what is happening. A short editorial was published on Affari Italiani regarding the situation. A few days ago, the French company Qonto also suffered a temporary onboarding block for new customers from the Bank of Italy.

Over the years, the competition from payment startups has become tougher. Meanwhile, the market is changing: “New platforms were emerging with complex payment systems that banks didn’t know how to manage: more payers, more recipients of the sums, more refunds: that’s where we entered.”

Currently, Lemonway manages payments for around 300 crowdfunding platforms in 12 countries around the world (in Italy, for example, the Produzioni dal Basso website uses it). And that’s not all. The payment system is also chosen for marketplaces, ticket offices and events, common funds and group gifts, small ads between individuals.

Lemonway’s real strength is its anti-fraud system , an algorithm cross-references data (IP, email, VPN, prepaid cards, etc.) and is thus able to identify and report unusual customer behavior in real time.

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First published in  StartupItalia. A third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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