Less than a month after launching a probe into Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s antitrust authority has told the country’s biggest bank to halt its proposed transfer of 2.4 million customers to a new mobile-only offering.

Earlier this month, the Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato (AGCM) said that it had received more than 2,000 complaints over how the bank handled the transition, with Intesa informing their customers of the major change only via their online and mobile banking accounts.

The watchdog at the time described the message as "ambiguous and sent in a way that is not consistent with the importance of the matter at stake."

In an update this week, the AGCM said that the number of complaints it had received has now reached 5,000.

Isybank, launched in June, is a key part of Intesa’s attempts to cut costs and realign business objectives, with an aim of hitting around 4 million younger customers who do not use traditional branches. The new bank is a key part of Intesa’s attempts to update its digital infrastructure and transition from legacy systems to cloud technology.

Intesa started moving around 300,000 customers from its traditional network to the cloud-based Isybank last month, and said that it plans to shift a further 2.4 million in early 2024.

In a statement, the AGCM justified the pause on Intesa’s transition, stating: "In this way account holders will be put in the condition of choosing whether to keep their account with Intesa Sanpaolo ... or shift to Isybank.”

Intesa is yet to comment on the ruling.

Intesa’s actions had already been criticised by prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which last month called on the Treasury to give customers more time to opt out of what was described as a “forced migration”.

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