We can see massive shifts in market shares of the fintech industry over the past few years. The change is happening today, not tomorrow. And the tech focused players will shape the future of finance and retail banking. One who does not make technology a priority will lose. The implementation of PSD2 will even create more opportunities and drive change. In the end, there will be some giant players in retail banking that take up the market. N26 is one such innovative fintech company that helps users to ride on advanced technologies in the field of banking with its sophisticated solutions.
The Mobile Bank
N26 is a German direct bank, headquartered in Berlin, offers its services in most part of the Eurozone. N26 is a full fledged retail bank built from scratch. It offers best practice retail banking as convenient and easy as the usage of Spotify or Google Maps. A truly digital product with a great experience people loves to use. Retail banking does not need to be boring and a hassle. It offers its N26 customers best in class banking products, fully digital, easy to use, contemporary and paperless, focussing on an unrivaled user experience. Opening an account takes only 8 minutes and all products and services are only a few clicks away within the N26 app.
N26 provides a free basic current account and a Debit MasterCard to its customers. Additionally, customers can request an overdraft, investment products, and premium current accounts. The premium MasterCard product, referred to as N26 Black is currently available in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain.
The account opening process can be completed via a video chat with N26’s identity verification partner (IDnow) and, according to its website, it takes around 8 minutes. The holders of certain passports and ID cards can verify their identity online, others will have to visit a German post office. N26 accepts customers from all Eurozone countries except Cyprus and Malta, for its basic current account and Debit Mastercard product. In Germany, Austria and the Netherlands customers can additionally request a Maestro card. The website, the app and the customer service are provided in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish regardless of the customer’s residency. As a result, it is one of the few German banks that offer their interface in other languages for non-German speakers living in Germany.
Meet the Team
N26 was founded by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal, who both had no classical banking background, but they believed that financial services were an industry ready for disruption. Big corporates, with endless hierarchical levels and old technology. Digitalization was lagging way behind other industries such as e-commerce, travel & entertainment. N26’ growth is primarily organic. A brutal customer focus made this possible and this is what both founders of N26 care most about. They question everything that is set by the old industry giants and drive things focused on customers makes the difference today.
Simplifying the Way of Banking with the Futuristic Solutions
N26 started with the core retail banking product, a checking account & card and have since been continuously complementing its product offering to meet today’s needs of banking clients. Today, N26 offers money wires in foreign currency (partnered by transferwise), free of cost money withdrawals with retailers (partnered by barzahlen.de) consumer credit (own product, recently extended by integrating offers from the credit marketplace auxmoney), savings (partnership with Raisin), a place to manage all your insurances (an insurance wallet in co-operation with Insurtech Clark). Today, customers want hassle free and easy banking with some clicks from everywhere and that’s what N26 delivers.
Cost Effective Operation
N26 has been granted a banking license by German regulator BaFin and ECB in July 2016. It has, therefore, adhere to the same regulatory framework as traditional banks. But unlike traditional banks, N26 operates on a much lower cost bases, not having to deal with a huge branch network and IT legacy issues. N26 is purely Equity financed and has a sound investor base with some of the renowned investors globally.
Strategies for Success
Team N26 believes that their primary growth drivers are their customers, recommending N26 to friends and family. They believe that banking needs of today’s customer are similar around the globe and that N26 has the potential, to sustainably chance retail banking. They are continuing to extend its product offering in all the markets it operates in and invest in their international growth. They partner with innovative FinTechs and traditional providers to offer best of class products on one platform only, focussing on the N26 user experience. They believe, “banks can be so much more for customers than what they are today and that’s what we work on every day.”
Strategies for Future
Team N26 will focus on their growth in the international markets and extend their product offerings accordingly to the markets in, which they operate. They work a lot on data science to further customize their experience for each of their users. Team N26 is also considering “Blockchain” technology as one of the opportunities for N26 to use it in the future. Presently, they are more focused on the topics beneficial for their clients.
