Table of contents
Creditor
What are the terms for the exclusive use of the pagoPA platform?
Article 65, paragraph 2, of legislative decree 13 December 2017, no. 217, as amended by article 1, paragraph 8, of Decree Law 162/2019, establishes that “The obligation for the authorized payment service providers to use exclusively the platform as specified in article 5, paragraph 2, of legislative degree no. 82 of 2005 for payments to public administrations starts on 28 February 2021. Also for the purpose to permit digital payments by citizens, the entities specified in article 2, paragraph 2 of legislative decree 7 March2005, no. 82, are required by 28 February 2021 to integrate their payment systems with the platform in article 5, paragraph 2, of legislative degree 7 March 2005, no. 82 that is to make use of services, for this purpose, provided by other entities as also specified in article 2, paragraph 2, or by collection service suppliers already authorized to work on the platform.
The failure to fulfill the obligation as specified in the previous section, detected for the purposes of the measurement and evaluation of the individual performance of responsible managers and resulting in managerial and disciplinary responsibility pursuant to articles 21 and 55 of legislative decree 30 March 2001, no. 165”. Therefore, after 28 February 2021, the PSPs authorized to operate in Italy by Banca d'Italia may not execute payment services that do not transit through the pagoPA system if the beneficiary is a public administration.
As public administrations will not be able to collect through a PSP outside of the pagoPA system and for the purposes of their comprehensive management of collections via pagoPA, they must have opted for one or more of the following solutions by 28 February 2021: integration of their collection systems with the pagoPA platform, use of the collection services supplied by other beneficiary entities already active on the pagoPA platform; assignment of their revenues to a special collector already registered with pagoPA.
Therefore, the administrations and other institutions registered with pagoPA must adapt their forms in order eliminate all references to the IBAN for payment. It remains understood that if a user has already stored the IBAN and makes a payment outside of the pagoPA system, this payment will still be managed by the Creditor as a single exception if the PSP was not able to block it, with the hoe that the number of these exceptions will be reduced over time in order to achieve full compliance with law by the PSPs and Creditors.
What are the regulatory references concerning electronic payments in favor of the PA?
In light of article 5 of the Digital Administration Code specified in Leg. Decree 82/2005, the entities indicated in article 2 of the code are obligated to accept, via the pagoPA platform, the payments that are due for any reason through electronic payment systems. In order to achieve the objectives of the rationalization and reduction of public spending for informatics, and in order to guarantee the homogeneity of the offer and high security levels, Public Administrations - pursuant to article 15, paragraph 5 bis, of Decree Law no. 179/2012, as converted into law - are required to make use of the public technological infrastructure, better known as the pagoPA platform, provided by PagoPA S.p.A.
The document “Guidelines for making electronic payments in favor of Public Administrations and Public Service Operators” - published in G.U. (Official Gazette of the Italian Republic) no. 152 of 3 July 2018 - defines the rules and methods for making electronic payments through the payment node by registered entities. The guidelines, as secondary legislation, have the prerequisite of the primary provisions on payments, including national regulations for the implementation of PSD2.
What are the deadlines?
The pagoPA platform has been active and operative since 2012, whereas the obligation of entities subject to the application of the CAD (Digital Administration Code) to permit users (citizens, businesses and professionals) to make payments with digital means for all amounts due to the Public Administration for any reason has been in force since 1 June 2013. Furthermore, article 65, paragraph 2, of legislative Decree 13 December 2017, no. 217 as modified by article 24 of Decree Law 16 July 2020 no.76, establishes that: “The obligation for the authorized payment service providers to use exclusively the pagoPA platform for payments to public administrations starts on 28 February 2021”.
Is an interconnection possible between the Node and international payment circuits?
In compliance with the objective of the pagoPA platform to guarantee the free market of PSPs, the guidelines establish that also non-domestic PSPs can register with the system to provide their payment services to users of the Italian PA, under the condition that they comply with the SEPA payment processes referred to in the guidelines. The system does not alter the processes defined for the management of the treasury, therefore the PA is obligated for their own financial management to use, if centralized, the treasury service provided by the Banca d'Italia and if local, assign their management to a treasury and/or casher entity and respect the principle of centralization specified in articles 209 and 211 of T.U.E.L. (Unified Text governing local authorities).
Can the payment instructions issued via pagoPA be revoked?
PSD and PSD2 and the respective national regulation of implementation establish, in general, that a payment order cannot be revoked once this order has been received by the PSP. By applying this regulatory provision to the payment methods of the platform, once the payer has sent the request to the PSP to execute the payment operation (regardless of the instrument: bank transfer, credit card, cash, MyBank, etc.) the payment cannot be revoked by the payer.
How is it possible refuse the obligation to register with pagoPA for public service operators or state-owned companies?
The public service operators and/or state-owned companies indicated in art. 2 of the CAD must register with the pagoPA platform, but this obligation does NOT determine the exclusive use of the payment services of the pagoPA platform. In fact, unlike the public administrations (see art. 5, paragraph 2-quater, of the CAD and art. 65, paragraph 2, of Leg. Decree 217/2017), public service operators and listed companies as specified by art. 2 of the CAD must make the payment services with pagoPA available to users but can also offer other payment services - in parallel - that are not integrated with pagoPA. Therefore the user who makes the payment will decide whether to use the payment services offered by pagoPA or other offers directly from the beneficiary.
What are the consequences of not registering with pagoPA?
The PAs that have not yet activated this system are not compliant the methods for collecting the amounts due. With Decree Law 76 of 2020, where specific fines are foreseen in the case of a delay, art 24: “The violation of article 64, paragraph 3-bis and the provisions specified in this article, represents the failure to reach a specific result and a relevant objective by the responsible managers of the competent structures and involves the reduction, of at least 30 percent, of the result-based retribution and ancillary compensation connected to the individual performance of responsible managers, as well as the prohibition to award bonuses or incentives within the same structures”. Art. 23.-bis of the same LD (1. In order to introduce procedure simplification measures that aim to streamline the procedure and eliminate bureaucratic overlapping, while taking in to account technical and infrastructural limitations and the difficulties of a technical-infrastructural nature and the impacts on the work organization following the global health emergency containment measures resulting from COVID-19, municipalities with a population of less than 5,000 residents will adapt to the provisions in this section for the support and diffusion of digital administration starting from the date foreseen for the end of the state of emergency resulting from the health risk connected to the onset of diseases deriving from communicable viral agents, scheduled by the resolution of the Council of Ministers for 29 July 2020).
Some of them require payments to be made using the F24 form, which is much more complex both during the preparation phase as well as during the payment phase, with frequent risks of errors. The payments made with the F24, furthermore, are collected by the State which only remits the payment to the Public Administrations afterward, and the remittance times can also be 15 days, making the collection process longer and more cumbersome. The Public Administrations often indicate different payment methods for different types of services: for example, a bank transfer, MAV (with notice), RAV (roles with notice), payments at the treasury or other specific collectors.
As a result, it is increasingly necessary to standardize the collections to provide citizens and businesses with a single homogeneous payment method that is recognized on a national level, even if this initially involves a physiological period of adaptation. Without the pagoPA system, Creditors cannot provide the citizen with a “final” payment receipt, with the risk of communicating after months or even years that some amounts are still due in order to finalize the payment that was already made.
Does the registration with pagoPA by an entity with whom a PA has contracted revenue collection affect the contracting PA itself?
A collector - defined as the entity registered in the register specified in article 53, paragraph 1, of Leg. Decree 446/1997, which allows the public administrations to assign revenue assessment, liquidation and collection activities to third parties - if registered with the pagoPA system, can be a Creditor and beneficiary of the electronic payment operations performed on the pagoPA platform only and exclusively in the case in which the public administration assigns the credit. Not even then in cases in which the Collector is managing a credit owned by the taxing entity (as specified in Circular note no. 3/DF of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance). Therefore keep in mind that the assignment to a collector is not included among the reasons for exemption from registration with the pagoPA platform by the PA collector/taxing entity; the collector can freely decide to register with the pagoPA system as a technological partner/intermediary to facilitate the taxing entities when registering with the pagoPA platform; in order to collect the receivables acquired by the PA after assigning the credit, the collector can register with pagoPA on its own behalf as a Creditor.
Can a creditor also use other electronic payment methods in addition to the payment services offered by pagoPA?
The pagoPA platform is the national electronic payment system in favor of Public Administrations and other entities that provide public services that are required by law to register. As specified in paragraph 5 of the guidelines, the Creditors who are obligated to register with pagoPA can use only the following payment methods as a supplement to the system:
- “Delega unica F24” (the F24 form) up until its integration with the pagoPA system;
- Sepa Direct Debit (SDD) up until its integration with the pagoPA system;
- Any other payment services that are not yet integrated with the pagoPA system and that cannot be substituted with those provided by pagoPA due to a specific provision of law that requires it be made available to the user to make the payment;
- On a cash basis, at the entity that performs the treasury or cash service for that entity.
Furthermore, article 65, paragraph 2, of Legislative Decree 13 December 2017, no. 217 establishes the obligation for the authorized payment service providers to use exclusively the platform as specified in article 5, paragraph 2, of legislative degree no. 82 of 2005 for payments to public administrations starts on 28 February 2021.
Therefore, starting from that date, the providers authorized to offer payment services pursuant to PSD2 cannot in any way execute payment services that do not transit through the payments-SPC node and must have a beneficiary that is a public entity obligated to register with the same system, with the sole exception of the services specified in letters a), b), c) and d) indicated above.
Finally, please note that pursuant to article 2, point 39 of Legislative Decree 15 December 2017, no. 218 for the implementation in Italy of PSD2, it is established that articles 36, 37 and 38 of Legislative Decree 27 January 2010, no. 11 are repealed as of the date of coming into force of this decree, with the exception of paragraph 6 of article 37, which is repealed starting from 1 January 2019. Therefore, as the Public Administrations must apply what is established as regards payments as indicated by PSD2 starting from 1 January 2019, registration with the pagoPA system, for the sole aspect of the collections, also guarantees full compliance with the European Directive as implemented on a national level.
Can a Creditor register IBANs for current accounts not in their name with the pagoPA system?
In general, each Creditor is required to register at least one IBAN current account in their name on the pagoPA system. For the activity of recording and updating the current accounts, the individual Creditor appoints their own Payment Representative, who takes on all responsibilities for what is communicated to the pagoPA Backoffice in the name and on the behalf of the Creditor of reference.
This precondition is necessary for specifying that, in consideration of the role and functions of the Payment Representative, PagoPA S.p.A. allows a Creditor to record also register IBANs inherent to current accounts not in their name. These IBANs must however belong to third-party entities who have a relationship with the Creditor for the provision of specific services and, at the same time, have a telematic connection that, even if outside the pagoPA system, allows the third-party entity to receive information flows exchanged on the pagoPA system.
The cases in which a Creditor can record IBANs inherent to current accounts not in their name are described below:
- A Creditor who wants to record IBANs for companies controlled by them in the pagoPA system;
- A Creditor who, by means of a Union of Municipalities, wants to record the institutions that are part of it in the pagoPA system;
- A Creditor to provides a service on its own behalf whose collection, by law, is attributed to another administration.
What benefits do the pagoPA system, the SUAP (Single Contact Point for Production Activities) and the “impresainungiorno.gov.it” portal have for Municipalities?
Due to the fact that the “impresainungiorno.gov.it” portal has been successfully integrated with the electronic payment functions of the pagoPA system:
- The Municipalities who collaborate with the Chamber of Commerce for performing the functions of the SUAP using “impresainungiorno.gov.it” and who already receive payments in their favor through this portal already fulfill the obligation of registration with the “pagoPA” system as concerns the services to businesses provided through the SUAP and, even if they are already included in the list of institutions registered with the pagoPA system, they will then have to send the AgID (Agency for Digital Italy) a registration letter for services other than those provided via the “impresainungiorno.gov.it” portal;
- The Municipalities who collaborate with the Chamber of Commerce for performing the functions of the SUAP using “impresainungiorno.gov.it” but have never enabled the payment system via this portal cannot take advantage of the benefits specified above in point a) but can still assign InfoCamere the role of the technological intermediary; in that regard, these Municipalities can register with the“pagoPA” system (see https://www.pagopa.gov.it/it/pubbliche-amministrazioni/come-aderire/) in the Reserved Area and the pagoPA Backoffice product and indicate InfoCamere as the technological intermediary.
At the same time, the municipalities in question must contact InfoCamere for scheduling the service activation plan and for activation of the “pagoPA” platform for the SUAP services provided via the impresainungiorno.gov.it portal.
This being said, please note that - regardless of the benefits specified above in letters a) and b)- every Municipality is required to register with the “pagoPA” system for the payment of the remaining services, that is those provided outside the impresainungiorno.gov.it portal.
Is a Creditor obligated to make all the specified payment models available?
Yes. The entities who are subject to CAD are obligated to make electronic payments available to users via the payments-SPC node infrastructure.
This obligation is described in detail in the guidelines and the relative technical attachments, where the various payment models are described. Therefore, the entities who are obligated to register with the payments-SPC node are also required to implement all the specified payment models
If the institution has already activated an online payment system, can they use the pagoPA logo?
Registration with pagoPA is mandatory regardless of the fact that an institution has already made electronic payment methods available to their users. The implementation of a centralized national system (pagoPA), complies with the wider objective specified by article 15, comma 5 bis, of Legislative Decree 179/2012, of rationalization and reduction of public spending for informatics and in order to guarantee homogeneity of the offer to the user and high levels of security.
Therefore, it is specified that every online payment platform already implemented and/or in use by the institution or a public service operator can be maintained providing that it is integrated with the payments-SPC node for the exchange of the relative flows according to what is described in the guidelines. The “pagoPA” logo that identifies registration with the pagoPA system is issued only to entities who have completed all the formalities required by the registration procedure (the documentation is available on the pagoPA website, divided by Creditor and Payment Service Providers). With this logo, users can understand immediately if a public entity - as a beneficiary - or a private entity - as a payment service provider - has registered with the pagoPA system.
Are professional associations required to register with pagoPA?
To be able to respond to this question properly, it appears necessary to indicate that our system can create some interpretative doubts regarding the identification of the legal nature of the professional associations. In fact, if on the one hand the associations are legally recognized as actual noneconomic public institutions, as they are capable of adopting acts affecting the legal sphere of others, on the other hand they continue to be considered exponential bodies of each of the professional categories concerned, and therefore as actual organizations belonging to the general legal system.
Therefore, in general, it is necessary to evaluate on a case by case basis in order to determine whether the private profile or the public profile should be prevail according to the logic of the regulation for which the question is whether or not it should be applied to professional associations. In the specific case of application of article 5 of the CAD and, therefore, registration with the pagoPA system, it appears appropriate to emphasize that this obligation, pursuant to art. 2, paragraph 2, of the CAD also concerns noneconomic public institutions and even public service operators and unlisted state-owned companies. Therefore pursuant to the above, professional associations are therefore required to register with the pagoPA platform to allow their payers to benefit from the electronic payment functions offered by the system.
Yes. Keeping in mind that the CAD was first amended by Leg. Decree 179/2016 (G.U. no. 214 of 13.9.2016) and then corrected by Leg. Decree 217/2017 (G.U. no. 9 of 12.01.2018), the current article 2, paragraph 2 of CAD, included in the perimeter of the CAD not only the Public Administrations, but also state-owned companies as well as public service operators.
Therefore, the Public Administrations, state-owned companies and public service operators are obligated to register with the pagoPA system to allow their users to perform electronic payments to them in a uniform manner.
Without prejudice to the above, it is necessary to emphasize that in our system, even if there may still be some interpretive doubts regarding the identification of the legal nature of the social security institutes, in the specific case of registration with the pagoPA system, keep in mind that this obligation also concerns the institutions included in the list specified in art. 1, paragraph 2, of Law 196/2009 as well as private public service operators. In the case at hand, as the national social security and welfare institutions are included in the list specified in art. 1, paragraph 2, of Law 196/2009 and are private public service operators, pursuant to article 2, paragraph 2, respectively, letters c) and b), they obligated to register with the pagoPA system.
Are the transfer of funds between public institutions that are performed using treasury account in Banca d'Italia excluded from the pagoPA system?
Yes. pagoPA does not modify or alter the application of the public finance regulations included in art. 44 of law 526/1982 that require institutions holding funds in special current or accounting accounts with the State Treasuries to perform fund transfer operations to these special current or accounting accounts held by the payment recipients. Every other form of collection must be managed on the pagoPA platform.
Are private health structures that operate under national service accreditation required to register with pagoPA?
At the moment the private health structure obtains accreditation, it operates as a public service operator.
As a result it is obligated to register with pagoPA as this obligation pursuant to art. 2, paragraph 2, of the CAD also involves public service operators.
Can a local institution select to provide its users only with the payment methods offered by the pagoPA system?
The pagoPA system is the national electronic payment system in favor of Public Administrations and other entities that are required to register with the system. Therefore, in order for the entities subject to registration with the pagoPA infrastructure to collect what is due to them, they must make the payment methods offered by the pagoPA platform available to their users, which can be supplemented by a cash payment service, at the institution and/or the entity that performs the treasury or cashier service for that institution. As a result, a local institution can independently, and in compliance with the regulations currently in force, and according to its own operational and accounting autonomy decisions, decide to eliminate the use of cash and/or fully digitalize the management of collections.
In consideration of the above, keep in mind that the pagoPA platform makes it possible for the payer to select whether to pay on-line (also using the APP) or at the counter.
Are volunteer associations among local public bodies required to register with the pagoPA platform?
Yes. Neither the CAD or Leg. Decree 179/2012 provide any type of exception in this case. In fact, any institution that receives payments in its favor from private or public entities that cannot make the payment by transferring funds at the treasury of Banca d'Italia must fulfill the legal obligation of registering with the pagoPA platform.
Are state-owned companies that do not receive payments from citizens or businesses required to register with pagoPA?
Yes, every entity required by the regulations to register with pagoPA remains required to register even if they do not receive payments from citizens and businesses, but only from public entities. Therefore, the state-owned companies or public service operators and any other obligated entity that does not have the obligation to perform payment operations to other public administrations by means of fund transfers for the management of its revenues must register with pagoPA. In fact, neither the new art. 5 of the CAD, nor paragraph 5bis of art. 15 of Leg. Decree 179/2012 specify that pagoPA concerns exclusively relationships with citizens and businesses. Therefore, all payments in favor of entities obligated to register with pagoPA must take place via pagoPA.
Is a Creditor registered with the pagoPA system obligated to have a postal current account?
Paragraph 5 of the guidelines from the last published in G.U. by AgID and available on the pagoPA website specifies that “For the purposes of permitting the end user to have all the payment instruments available, including the postal payment slip service, every Creditor who has a postal current account, must register the IBAN with the pagoPA system, together with the treasury or cashier current account”. As a result, the institution is required to register at least one postal current account if it is already available to that institution before registration with pagoPA or, in any case, if subsequently the institution decided voluntarily to establish one. In other words, if an institution, for any reason, has a postal current account in its name they must use it also for pagoPA. The same paragraph continues, specifying that “For the same purpose, each Creditor has the right to establish a postal current account also after registering with the pagoPA system”, indicating that they have the right to establish a postal current account even if this account was not pre-existing when registering with pagoPA. Finally, the same paragraph of the guidelines indicates that “Every Creditor who has other bank or postal current accounts can register their IBANs with the payment-SPC node”, indicating that the institution also has right to have more than one postal current account. Therefore, it is not required to create a new account with Poste Italiane after registering with pagoPA but it is clear that this account can expand the payment instruments that an institution can make available to payers via pagoPA.
In the document The analog payment notice in the pagoPA system published at www.pagopa.gov.it of pagoPA, it is specified that: “The Creditors who want to use the new postal payment slip can make a request to Poste Italiane to obtain the necessary authorization to print their own.
The request for authorization can be made to Poste Italiane as defined in the Print your own manual, which is available at poste.it (Business/PA/Financial Services), in order to access the page that contains all the documents necessary for requesting authorization for printing, including the manual that describes how the new PS payment slip must be prepared.
Furthermore, Poste Italiane has specified that the new massive authorization for the production of PA payment slips integrated in the pagoPA notice, due to its nature, can also be requested by entities other than printers, such as technological partners or SW houses of the institutions.
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