SIOPE+ is the infrastructure introduced in 2018 to manage the electronic exchange of payment and collection orders between general government and banks that provide treasury services.
SIOPE+ has been developed and is managed by Banca d'Italia (the Bank) in accordance with Article 1(533) of Law 232 of 11 December 2016. General government bodies must submit payment and collection orders to their treasury or cash management service providers exclusively in digital form, in compliance with the standard set by Italian national agency for digitalization (Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale - AgID); the orders must be transmitted via SIOPE+ based on the information exchange rules laid out by the Bank and the State General Accounting Department.
By drawing information directly from accounting documents with the highest level of detail, SIOPE+ meets the following needs:
- Improving the quality and timeliness of the data used for monitoring government expenditure and, in particular, for tracking the payment times to general government suppliers.
- Increasing the level of digitalization of the government bodies and their treasury services through the complete dematerialization of information flows between general government entities and treasury service providers, as well as through the standardization of the information exchange protocol and rules.
Following extensive consultation with representatives of general government bodies and treasury service providers, AgID issued the single national standard on collection and payment orders (Ordinativo di Pagamento e Incasso, OPI); the standard is designed to improve the quality of treasury services and promote integration between the entities' accounting systems and the payment procedures. AgID, in coordination with the Bank and the State General Accounting Department, assists general government bodies and treasury service providers in interpreting and updating OPI technical rules.
The State General Accounting Department and the Bank have jointly laid out rules for the exchange of payment and information flows between general government entities and treasury service providers through the SIOPE+ platform in the document 'Regole tecniche per il colloquio telematico di Amministrazioni pubbliche e Tesorieri con SIOPE+' (only in Italian).
After a trial phase that began in July 2017, all the sub-national governments (regions, provinces, metropolitan cities, municipalities) and local health units have gradually joined the SIOPE+ platform since 2018, in compliance with the provisions set out in the relevant Decrees of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Today SIOPE+ counts more than ten thousand entities.
Pursuant to the Decree of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of 12 September 2022, as of 1 January 2023, the information retrieved from the SIOPE+ platform is used to feed the SIOPE database with reference to local government.
The activities related to the management of SIOPE and SIOPE+ are governed by an agreement between the Bank and the State General Accounting Department signed in January 2019, amending and superseding the 2003 agreement.
