Neobanks in Europe

Last updated

The development of neobanks in Europe is a trend in the European financial landscape beginning in the 2010s. Neobanks are a type of digital-only bank that offer financial services primarily through mobile and web applications, with little or no reliance on physical branches. The trend was driven by advancements in technology, changing consumer preferences, and supportive regulatory frameworks. Neobanks provide a range of services, including personal accounts, loans, and payment services, with a focus on user-friendly interfaces, low fees, and innovative features. [1] [2] In 2022, European neobank market have generated over 570B transactions. [3]

Contents

Growth of Neobanks in Europe

The neobank industry in Europe has experienced rapid growth in the 2010s, with several new companies entering the market and attracting millions of customers. Key factors of their growth include:

  1. Technology advancements: The widespread adoption of smartphones and high-speed internet has made it easier for consumers to access banking services through digital channels, paving the way for the rise of neobanks.
  2. Changing consumer preferences: As consumers increasingly demand personalized, user-friendly experiences, neobanks have capitalized on this trend by offering innovative financial products and services tailored to the digital age.[ citation needed ]
  3. Supportive regulatory environment: The European Union's Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) has facilitated the entry of non-traditional financial players, such as neobanks, into the market by enabling third-party providers to access customer account data from traditional banks with customer consent. This has allowed neobanks to develop innovative solutions and compete with established banks. [1] [4] [5]

Some European neobanks

  1. Revolut (United Kingdom) launched in 2015 is Europe's largest neobank with 30 million customers worldwide, offering services such as personal accounts with local IBANs, debit cards, currency exchange, and investment products. [6]
  2. Tinkoff (Russia) launched in 2006, it is the second largest neobank in the world by number of clients and the largest in Europe, with more than 26 million clients and offering a full range of banking services. [7] [8] [9]
  3. Monobank launched in 2017 and serves more than 8 million customers in Ukraine. [10]
  4. N26 is a German neobank that has expanded its operations across Europe with a focus on Europe. [11]
  5. Monese is a London-based fintech which secured 35M from HSBC in 2022. [12] [13]
  6. bunq (the Netherlands) was founded in 2012 and is currently operating in more than 15 European countries, offering services such as personal accounts, debit cards, joint accounts, currency exchange, and savings accounts. [14] Bunq is Europe's second largest neobank with 9 million customers. [15] [16]
  7. Wise (company) (United Kingdom) is a foreign exchange financial technology company.
  8. Vivid Money is a Germany based neobank with support from Berlin-based solarisBank and Visa. [17] [18]
  9. Qonto is a French neobank that specialises in freelancers and Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and operates in France, Germany and Spain. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zopa</span> British financial services company

Zopa Bank Ltd. is a British online bank which offers deposit accounts, personal loans and credit cards. It began as the world's first peer-to-peer lending company in 2005 and gained a full banking licence in 2020. The peer-to-peer side of its business closed in December 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Payoneer</span> Financial services company

Payoneer Global Inc. is an American financial services company that provides online money transfer, digital payment services and provides customers with working capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LendUp</span> American financial technology company

LendUp was an American online direct lender. It offered payday loans, installment loans, and credit cards to consumers with low credit scores using publicly available data to assess creditworthiness. The company referred to its customers as “the emerging middle class.” LendUp also issued credit cards in partnership with Tom Steyer's Beneficial State Bank.

Viva Wallet  is a European Neobank entirely based in Microsoft Azure with presence in 24 European countries. Viva Wallet Holdings owns a Banking License. In January 2022, international media reported that Viva Wallet was the first Greek unicorn startup company after an agreement with JP Morgan Chase was announced. Viva Wallet is part of the Viva Wallet Group, consisting of the subsidiaries Viva Services SA, Viva Payment Services and Vivabank.

In financial services, open banking allows for financial data to be shared between banks and third-party service providers through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). Traditionally, banks have kept customer financial data within their own closed systems. Open banking allows customers to share their financial information securely and electronically with other banks or other authorized financial organizations such as payment providers, lenders and insurance companies.

Revolut is a global neobank and financial technology company with headquarters in London, UK that offers banking services for retail customers and businesses. It was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It offers products including banking services, currency exchange, debit and credit cards, virtual cards, Apple Pay, interest-bearing "vaults", personal loans and BNPL, stock trading, crypto, commodities, human resources and other services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">N26</span> German Neobank

N26 is a German neobank headquartered in Berlin, Germany. N26 was founded in 2013 by the Rocket Internet incubator and currently operates in various European Union member states that are members of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). N26 provides a free basic transaction account and a debit card, with overdraft and investment products and premium accounts available for a monthly fee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monese</span> British financial services company

Monese is a British company that offers current accounts and money transfer services as an alternative to traditional banks. The mobile-only service provides accounts in Pounds sterling, Euros and Romanian leu, and is available in 31 countries across the European Economic Area. As of January 2020, it has over 2 million customers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plaid Inc.</span> Financial technology company

Plaid is a financial services company based in San Francisco, California. The company builds a data transfer network that powers fintech and digital finance products.

Auka is a Norwegian, VC-backed financial technology company. Its PSD2 compliant technology platform enables banks to issue white label mobile payments products to their private and merchant customers.

Challenger banks are small, recently created retail banks that compete directly with the longer-established banks in the UK, sometimes by specialising in areas underserved by the "big four" banks. As well as new entrants to the market, some challenger banks were created following divestment from larger banking groups or wind-down of a failed large bank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zeta (company)</span> Next-gen Banking Tech & Card Issuer Processor

Zeta is a next-gen banking tech company by founders Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati in 2015. The company provides credit and debit card issuer processing, BNPL, cloud banking, and "mobile experiences". Zeta provides its products to banks and fintechs globally.

Up, also known as Up Money and Up Banking, is an Australian neobank based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia with more than 700,000 mostly young Australian customers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chime (company)</span> American financial services company

Chime Financial, Inc. is a San Francisco–based financial technology company that partners with regional banks to provide certain fee-free mobile banking services. The company offers early access to paychecks, negative account balances without overdraft fees, high-yield savings accounts, peer-to-peer payments, and an interest-free secured credit card. Chime earns the majority of its revenue from the collection of interchange fees on debit card transactions.

Current is an American financial services and software development company (FinTech) based in New York City. It provides mobile banking services through its partner bank, Choice Financial Group.

Maya, is a Filipino financial services and digital payments company based in Metro Manila, Philippines.

Tonik Digital Bank, Inc., commonly known as Tonik, is an all-digital bank which was launched in the Philippines in 2021, notable for being the first all-digital bank, or "neobank" in Southeast Asia. Its consumer products range from deposits, payments, debit cards, and loans. It operates with its own bank license issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), with deposits insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC). Its holding company is Singapore-based Tonik Financial Pte Ltd

bunq International fintech company

bunq B.V. is a Dutch fintech and neobank licensed in the Netherlands within the European Union and operating in 30 European countries. It was founded in Amsterdam where its headquarters are currently located.

Airwallex is a multinational financial technology company offering financial services and software as a service (SaaS). Founded in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia and currently based in Singapore, the company is a financial technology platform providing cross-border payments and financial services to businesses through a proprietary banking network and its API. It also provides services and products such as business accounts, expense cards, and payroll, among others. It was Australia's third technology unicorn company overall. With a valuation of US$5.5 billion, as of 2022, the company processed $50 billion in annualized transactions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monobank (Ukraine)</span> Ukrainian neobank

Monobank is a Ukrainian direct bank. Operating since 2017, serving more than 7 million customers in Ukraine. It is the first online bank without traditional branches in Ukraine.

References

  1. 1 2 "Europe's neobanks are outpacing legacy banks in app adoption". fintechmagazine.com. 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  2. "Neobanks across Europe fatten up as VCs demand profits". Tech.eu. 2023-03-22. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  3. "Europe Neobanking Market Size & Share Analysis - Industry Research Report - Growth Trends". www.mordorintelligence.com. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  4. "Open banking in Europe: The impact of the Revised Payments Services Directive on Solarisbank and Insha" (PDF).
  5. Padmanabhan, Arun (2021-10-07). "Explained: Neobanks, the next evolution of banking". The Economic Times. ISSN   0013-0389 . Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  6. "Revolut surpasses 30 million retail customers worldwide". Revolut. 2023-06-01. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  7. "What is Tinkoff Bank? The Russian disruptor targeting 20 million customers". NS Banking. 2019-08-19. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  8. "Stocks Shares". The Telegraph. 2023-08-31. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  9. "TCS Group Holding PLC releases highlights for 3Q'22 and 9M'22 performance — Tinkoff news". Tinkoff (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  10. "Дашборд monobank". monobank – мобільний банк (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  11. "An update from N26 US". An update from N26 US. 18 April 2023.
  12. Sawers, Paul (2022-09-20). "European neobank Monese nabs $35M from HSBC". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  13. O'Hear, Steve (2015-09-21). "Monese Launches In U.K. To Let Immigrants And Expats Get A Mobile Banking Account". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  14. McKenzie, Ian (2024-04-28). "bunq for Personal Banking: In-depth Review". Fintech Compass. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  15. Pugh, Alex (May 6, 2022). "Dutch challenger Bunq becomes EU's second largest neobank with Tricount acquisition". Fintech Futures.
  16. "bunq hits 9 million users across Europe, surpasses €4.5 billion in deposits". bunq. July 18, 2023. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  17. Lunden, Ingrid (2022-02-07). "Vivid Money, a financial super app, raises $114M at an $886M valuation to expand in Europe". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  18. "Vivid Money taps solarisBank and Visa for launch in Germany". Finextra Research. 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  19. "Qonto launches its digital bank accounts for small companies". TechCrunch. 5 July 2017. Retrieved 2018-12-19.