Market position
With over 160 years history, 12,755 post offices, 119 thousand employees, total financial assets of 590 billion euros and 46 million customers, with about 25 million daily interactions the Group is a strategic pillar for the country in terms of size, reputation, reach, and customer loyalty, making a major contribution to Italy's economic, social, and productive landscape.
Poste Italiane is the leading parcel operator in Italy, with market share gains on all segments with a strong parcel volumes growth, reaching 308 million items.
In the Financial sector, Poste is Italy’s most trusted omnichannel financial institution.
In the Insurance sector, Poste is a fully-fledged and resilient insurance company.
In the cards and payments sector, Poste is Italy’s largest payments player with about 30 million payment cards and 13.5 million digital wallets.
Corporate Divisions
In 2024, the Mail, Parcels and Distribution Business Unit continued on the path of transforming the Group into a complete logistics operator, according to the objectives outlined in the new Strategic Plan "2024-2028 – The Connecting Platform" presented to the market in March 2024.
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|---|---|
| Unrivalled physical distribution network | |
| 100% | Italian coverage |
| 308 m | Parcels delivered |
| 2.1 bn | Items of mail delivered |
| 12,755 | Postal offices |
The main activities of the business unit during the period:
- Strong growth of international parcel business – DHL partnership. Within the framework of the strategic partnership signed between Poste Italiane and the DHL Group, the first 40 lockers were activated by Locker Italia (a joint venture for eCommerce set up by Poste Italiane and DHL) in 2024, mainly located on some sites of the Poste Italiane Group, on underground stations in Rome and in shopping centres throughout the country. With their extensive coverage and intuitive technology, lockers enhance the quality of services supporting eCommerce, offering maximum convenience and security to senders and consumers.
- Under the public-private partnership contract signed in June 2024, for the management and rationalisation of integrated healthcare logistics for the Azienda Sanitaria Provinciale (A.S.P.) of Cosenza, plans are in place for the construction of the centralised warehouse located in Rende (CS) and the management of macrologistics services (management and transport from the warehouse to the hospital and territorial units) and micrologistics services (distribution to the wards) for drugs, devices and office supplies for all the hospital and territorial units of the A.S.P. In December 2024, the convention with the A.S.P. of Cosenza was signed and the round-table work group to revise the operational scope of the concession was started.
- Poste Italiane signed a partnership with the Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 for the 2026 Winter Games as Premium Logistics Partner: through its subsidiary Poste Logistics, it will manage the transport and logistics of all goods, equipment and materials required for the event at the Olympic and Paralympic venues.
| Parcel Volume (#m) | ||||
| CAGR 12-24 | CAGR 19-24 | DELTA 12-24 | DELTA 19-24 | |
| Poste Italiane | 16% | 16% | 481% | 108% |
| Austrian Post | 12% | 10% | 293% | 63% |
| Bpost | 17% | 17% | 531% | 122% |
| Deutsche Post | 5% | 5% | 90% | 29% |
| Post NL | 10% | 6% | 209% | 31% |
| Royal Mail* | -100% | -100% | -100% | -100% |
| CTT Correios | 16% | 30% | 516% | 273% |
| Postnord | 7% | 7% | 119% | 41% |
Below you can find comparisons with European postal operators on mail volumes operating data
| Mail Volume (#m) | ||||
| CAGR 12-24 | CAGR 19-24 | DELTA 12-24 | DELTA 19-24 | |
| Poste Italiane | (5%) | (5%) | (49%) | (23%) |
| Austrian Post | (3%) | (5%) | (34%) | (23%) |
| Bpost | (7%) | (8%) | (55%) | (33%) |
| Deutsche Post | (4%) | (5%) | (41%) | (22%) |
| Post NL | (6%) | 2% | (53%) | (8%) |
| Royal Mail* | (100%) | (100%) | (100%) | (100%) |
| CTT Correios | (7%) | (9%) | (60%) | (38%) |
| Postnord | (10%) | (12%) | (70%) | (47%) |
*Pending the results
BancoPosta is one of Italy’s biggest financial service providers and continues to expand its range of services.
By law, it does not engage in direct lending activity. Its main activities include the management of the banking book, consisting of public and private customer deposits and relative lending activities; promotion and management of the postal savings instruments issued by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti; promotion and distribution of financial products issued by third parties or other group divisions, such as units of open-ended mutual funds established by BancoPosta Fondi SGR, asset administration products, Poste Vita and Poste Assicura insurance policies, third-party financing products and credit cards.
In 2024, financial market conditions were generally favourable, driven by the easing of monetary policies by the FED and ECB, despite some turbulence in August triggered by recession fears in the US, weak tech earnings, and monetary tightening by the Bank of Japan. These concerns eased following the release of reassuring US macroeconomic data.
Throughout the year, the FED gradually lowered rates from 5.25–5.50% to 4.25–4.50%, while the ECB cut its deposit rate from 4.00% to 3.00% by year-end. Additional ECB rate cuts brought it to 2.50% by March 2025.
Bond yields in the euro area fell during the second half of 2024, as investors shifted to safer assets. The 10-year BTP-Bund spread narrowed from 167 bps to 116 bps, despite Italy’s significant bond issuance program. Gold reached an all-time high of $2,785/oz in November, closing the year up 27.2%, supported by lower rates, central bank purchases, and geopolitical tensions.
According to the Italian Banking Association (ABI), customer deposits in Italy rose by 2.4% in 2024 to about € 2,089 billion, driven by both increased bond issuance and growth in resident deposits. The average cost of bank funding was 1.14% in December 2024.
Assogestioni reported that total assets under management in Italy reached € 2,499 billion at year-end, up 6.9% from 2023. Assets in collective investment schemes rose by 7.8%, with open-ended funds growing by 10.6%. The asset management sector recorded net inflows of around € 30 billion, reversing the negative trend seen in 2023.
Poste Italiane operates in the insurance business through Poste Vita, a leading life insurance company in Italy. Poste Vita additionally offers investment and savings products, promoted through the Group’s distribution platform.
Through Poste Assicura, a subsidiary of Poste Vita, Poste Italiane offers several products in the casualty insurance space.
Recently Poste Italiane launched initiatives aimed at meeting the new needs expressed by customers in the areas of protection, welfare and healthcare by offering increasingly modular health and prevention products.
MARKET CONTEXT & POSTE ITALIANE POSITIONING
- While the Italian life insurance sector reported negative net inflows of €3.3 billion, Poste Vita achieved positive net inflows of €1.5 billion (down from 2023).
- Gross inflows of Poste Vita's investment products reached €18 billion, up slightly by €0.2 billion compared to the same period in 2023 due to the increase in inflows of multi-class products (+€3.7 billion), only partially offset by the decrease (-€3.5 billion) in business regarding traditional build-up products.
- The lapse rate increased to 6.6%, but remained significantly below the market average of 10.39%.
Gross inflows for investment products amounted to approximately €108.1 billion at the end of December 2024 (+21.2% compared to 2023). If new Life premiums reported by EU companies is also taken into account, the figure reached €116.7 billion (+19.7% compared to 2023).
Class I products led the market with €71.4 billion in premiums (+10.6%), accounting for 66% of the total.
Class III (unit-linked) products grew sharply by 59%, against total volumes of €31.5 billion
Pension fund recorded inflows €3.8 billion, slightly down year-over-year.
Distribution Channels
Bank and post office branches led with 57.1% share of investment product distribution (€61.7 billion, +19% vs. 2023).
Agency channel gross inflows in the period under review reached €26.1 billion, accounting for 24.1%.
Financial advisors amounted to €18.6 billion, up 50.7% compared with the amount placed in the previous year, accounting for 17.2% of total intermediated premiums.
Broker and distance sales channel recorded an increase in the year of 54.8% compared to 2023, with a volume of premiums placed equal to €1.7 billion.
Protection Insurance Market (P&C and Life)
Total premiums in the Italian protection market reached €35.5 billion by September 2024 (+8.8% YoY):
- Car damage protection: € 14.1 billion (+11.0%)
- Non car damage protection: € 19.7 billion (+6.6%)
- Others: (€ 1.7 billion) to premiums from Life protection products
Growth was driven by higher demand and premium rate increases due mainly to the increase in premiums from the Motor Vehicle TPL segment (+€ 0.9 billion) and partly also the Land Vehicles Hull Insurance business, which recorded an increase in premiums of € 0.5 billion, and the development of the non-motor damage protection sector (+€ 1.2 billion).
Protection Product Distribution Channels
Agencies remain dominant with a 71% market share.
Broker and distance channels: 12.6%
Banks and post offices: 10.7% (slight increase vs. 2023)
Digital Payments Market (Italy, 2024)
Card transaction value in Italy reached €335 billion in the first nine months of 2024 (+7.3% YoY), confirming the continued expansion of digital payments in Italy.
Number of transactions grew by 14%, over the first nine months of 2023 to €7.8 billion, a sign of an increasingly consolidated daily use of cards, also thanks to more widespread use of digital payments by merchants (e-commerce and contactless payments).
Debit cards remain the most used (61% of total transactions), with a transaction value of €128 billion (+8.6%) and an average transaction value of €41.5.
Credit card has increased, especially for larger payments, with transactions and transaction value up by 8.8% and 4.4% respectively compared to the first nine months of 2023.
Prepaid cards recorded a positive performance. (+12% of transactions and +6.9% of transaction value compared to the same period in 2023), thanks to the continued development of e-commerce and increased penetration at physical points.
As of 30 September 2024, there were 103 million active cards in circulation:
- Debit cards: 55 million (+2.2% vs December 2023)
- Prepaid cards: 34 million (+2.4% vs December 2023)
- Credit cards: 13.6 million (+0.6% vs December 2023)
The mobile telephone Market (Mobile SIMs, 2024)
Human-to-Human (H2H) SIM cards remained stable at 78.6 million (+0.2% from December 2023).
MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) continued to grow (+6.6%), while traditional operators saw a decline (–1.0%).
PosteMobile (32% of MVNO market) grew by 1.4% in H2H SIMs, reaching a 5.5% market share (+0.1%).
Energy Market Trends (2024)
The market saw full liberalization: gas (from January 2024) and electricity (from July 2024).
Operators promoted free market plans, increasing customer switching activity.
After a decline in prices during Q1, prices rose in the second half of the year due to:
- Geopolitical instability (e.g., Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine conflicts).
- Colder weather winter, leading to greater gas usage and higher prices (gas > €50/MWh in December).
Despite the rise, price levels remained below 2021–2023 crisis peaks, thanks to:
- Diversification of gas supply, especially through Liquefied Natural Gas LNG.
- Lower European gas consumption will be significantly reduced in 2023 and 2024, by more than 10% compared to the average of the previous five years.