Italy’s banks, insurers, and payment networks operate under close oversight from the European Central Bank and Italian regulators, and the five CISOs below protect some of the country’s largest financial institutions. Their careers reflect the breadth of the sector and then some. One started in fashion sales and marketing before spending 14 years protecting live sports broadcasts from piracy at Sky. Another led the team that made CheBanca! the first bank in Italy to earn ISO 22301 certification. A third has spent a quarter century at a single life insurer, and a fourth audited banks in Paris before taking on security for a corporate and investment banking platform spanning Italy, Spain, and the Middle East.
Simone Santini – CISO, UniCredit Life Insurance
Simone Santini managed distributed NT and AS/400 networks for Shell and led infrastructure at Azimut before joining UniCredit Life Insurance in 2001. For 18 years he headed infrastructure and security, ensuring the availability of the company’s core technology, managing service levels with suppliers, and overseeing logical and physical security. Santini has served as CISO since 2012, overseeing the company’s IT architecture and access management, running security training, coordinating information flows to its Legislative Decree 231 supervisory body, testing security controls, and supporting the data protection officer on GDPR. He spoke at the Italy Insurance Forum in May 2026.
Paolo Borghesi – Group CISO, Nexi
Paolo Borghesi started at Accenture designing security infrastructure for SAP environments, then helped launch Deloitte’s security and risks service line in Milan. He went on to lead Deloitte’s IT risk services in Qatar, and at AlixPartners in London he helped build the firm’s cybersecurity practice, taking interim CISO roles for clients. Borghesi became Group CISO of Nexi, the European payments company, in June 2017. He leads security engineering, operations, governance, and cybersecurity, including a 24/7 SOC and CSIRT and security testing that extends to the company’s hardware devices, along with an ISO 22301-certified business continuity program and a cyber resilience framework aligned with CPMI-IOSCO. He reports regularly to the board and risk committee and holds an MBA and master’s degrees in computer engineering and electronics.
Matteo Feraboli – Group CISO, Intesa Sanpaolo
Matteo Feraboli worked in fashion sales and marketing and as a freelance IT consultant before joining AXA Assicurazioni in 2000, where he rose to information security manager and chief IT architect and coordinated security and business continuity for AXA’s Mediterranean region. At Sky Italia he spent 14 years building out business continuity, information security, and content protection, becoming CSO for Sky Italy and leading anti-piracy and content protection across Sky Europe, protecting assets such as live football broadcasts. He also taught business continuity management at the University of Turin. Feraboli joined Intesa Sanpaolo in 2022, led its global cyber and anti-fraud defense center, and served as deputy group CISO before becoming Group CISO in June 2026, responsible for cybersecurity, anti-fraud, and business continuity. He counts among his proudest achievements the number of people he has hired who went on to become security leaders themselves.
Diego Pogliani – CISO, ING Italia
Diego Pogliani spent nearly a decade at SIA managing development of capital markets platforms with a team of about 20. He led the start-up program that launched CheBanca!, then built its IT and cybersecurity governance from scratch and established a business continuity framework that made it the first bank in Italy to earn ISO 22301 certification. Over the following years he built IT and cybersecurity governance across the Mediobanca Group, and as Group CISO from 2023 to 2026 he led group-wide cybersecurity and DORA implementation and served as the primary interface with the European Central Bank during inspections. Pogliani became CISO of ING Italia in October 2026. He serves on the Gartner CISO governing body and the CERTFin and CETIF steering committees, and holds CISM, CRISC, and CCSK certifications.
Meriame Ucci – CISO, CIB Europe, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking
Meriame Ucci began in Paris as a PMO in Société Générale’s finance department and an organization consultant at CSC, then spent four years as an internal auditor at Société Générale, specializing in IT systems, payments, and FATCA compliance. She joined Natixis in 2014 as an IT internal auditor in its general inspection and audit function, then moved to Milan as senior compliance officer and information security officer for EMEA. Ucci became CISO in 2021 and has led security for the Natixis CIB Europe platform since February 2025, overseeing cybersecurity across Italy, Spain, and the Middle East. She is CISA certified and fluent in French, English, Arabic, and Italian.
Securing Italian Finance
These five CISOs show the many routes into financial services security. Santini and Pogliani built long careers inside a single group, while Borghesi brought international consulting experience to payments and Feraboli carried lessons from insurance and media into Italy’s largest bank. Ucci’s background in audit and compliance underpins her work across a multinational investment banking platform. Together they protect the banks, insurers, and payment systems at the center of Italy’s economy.
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John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.