N26 (direct bank)

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  N26 Bank GmbH
N26 GmbH
logo
Country GermanyGermany Germany
Seat Berlin
legal form GmbH
Bank code 100 110 01
BIC NTSB DEB1 XXX
founding 2013
Website n26.com
Business dataTemplate: Infobox credit institute / maintenance / data out of dateTemplate: Infobox credit institute / maintenance / year missing
Total assets 151.8 million euros
(N26 Bank GmbH)
28.1 million euros
(N26 GmbH)
Employee around 1,300
Offices Berlin , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management
Corporate management
  • Valentin Stalf (founder and CEO)
  • Maximilian Tayenthal (founder and CFO)
  • Markus Gunter, Matthias Oetken (Head of N26 Bank GmbH)
N26 MasterCard
N26 Maestro

N26 is a German direct bank that has specialized in managing accounts via smartphone . The number in the name can be traced back to the 26 individual cubes in a magic cube and to the first office space at Unter den Linden 26 ( Kaiserhöfe ) in Berlin . Until it received its own banking license, N26 used the license and services of Wirecard Bank AG to process banking transactions . As of January 2020, the bank says it has over 5 million customers. Almost 60 percent of them are younger than 35 years. N26 currently offers its services in 24 European countries.

history

Today's bank was in 2013 with the company Papayer GmbH FinTech - Start-up of the Viennese Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal founded. In January 2015 it started as Number26 with Wirecard in the background in Germany and Austria, followed in December of the same year by France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia and Spain. One year after the start, Number26 had 100,000 customers.

The bank aroused displeasure in June 2016 when it initially informed customers who withdrew money very frequently that they would cancel their accounts without giving any reason. A little later, the initially unlimited free withdrawals from the ATM were limited to three or five per month and the bank announced that the system of unlimited free withdrawals in Germany was no longer profitable due to cases of abuse on the part of customers.

Number26 received 700,000 euros in funding from the Investitionsbank Berlin for the development of systems for the automatic detection of attempted fraud. In July 2016 Number26 received the full banking license and expanded the offer to include an investment product, at the same time the bank renamed itself N26. In November, the bank began moving all previous customers to the new, independent N26 Bank. In addition, N26 business accounts with cashback and N26 black accounts with additional insurance benefits are now available.

In 2018, N26 had a turnover of 43 million euros. Since 2019, N26 has been the most valuable German financial start-up with a company valuation of 2.3 billion euros. As of January 2020, N26 has over 5 million customers. On February 11, 2020, as a result of the UK's exit from the EU , N26 announced that it would leave Great Britain and allow its accounts there to expire on April 15, 2020.

Company profile and products

As a direct bank, N26 offers a current account that can be opened and managed entirely via an app . The bank offers so-called real-time banking : All transactions can be viewed in the app within seconds and are displayed to the customer via push notification.

Customers receive a Debit Mastercard with their account . On request, German, Austrian and Dutch customers can receive a pure Maestro card (not a Girocard with Maestro co-branding, as is common in Germany). With N26 Metal, a World Elite Metal Mastercard is also offered, which includes various insurance benefits and, in contrast to the normal Debit Mastercard, enables free cash withdrawals in foreign currencies.

The account is initially managed on a credit basis, but the customer is given the option - depending on their creditworthiness - to apply for an individual overdraft facility of up to € 5,000.

Money can be transferred to other N26 customers in real time via MoneyBeam . Transfers in foreign currencies can be made directly in the app using TransferWise .

Up to three or five free withdrawals per month are possible in Germany, depending on the fulfillment of certain criteria according to the fair use policy such as B. Age or cash receipts at ATMs with the Debit Mastercard possible. Any number of free cash withdrawals are possible in Austria, Italy and the Netherlands. In the rest of the world, five free cash withdrawals per month are possible with it, with a fee of 1.7% for withdrawals in foreign currencies except with the N26 Black card. With the Maestro, you generally have to pay € 2 per withdrawal.

In addition, N26 offers free withdrawals via CASH26 e.g. B. in supermarkets or mobile phone shops. Deposits are also possible, but a fee of 1.5% of the amount is charged for deposits.

With N26 Savings, a fixed-term deposit saving function is offered in cooperation with the European interest portal WeltSparen.

The N26 Invest offer, introduced in 2016 in cooperation with the robo-advisor vaamo (now Moneyfarm), was temporarily discontinued in early 2019.

N26 Credit enables you to take out a loan between € 1,000 and € 25,000 with a term of 1 to 5 years. The application is made directly in the app.

Since April 23, 2019, N26 has been issuing a Spanish instead of a German IBAN when opening an account to customers based in Spain.

Violation of the General Data Protection Regulation and BaFin requirements

Because N26 processed the personal data of former customers without authorization, the Berlin data protection officer imposed one of the highest fines to date for violations of the GDPR with a fine of 50,000 euros . On May 23, 2019, the financial supervisory authority Bafin ordered that the smartphone bank had to remedy the extensive deficiencies in the precautions against money laundering and terrorist financing. In addition, N26 would have to re-identify some existing customers and write down various internal bank processes.

criticism

N26 came under fire for its corporate communications after the company terminated the accounts of over 400 customers because of too frequent cash withdrawals.

The N26 Invest function was criticized by consumer advocates because the fees for low investment sums would greatly reduce profits, and the investment risks were not adequately communicated.

With the acquisition of the own banking license and the associated conversion of all bank accounts, criticism arose again. Customers reported problems getting new bank cards sent, failed transfers and customer support that was difficult to reach.

The lecture by security researcher Vincent Haupert at the 33C3 in Hamburg caused a stir , in which he explained how vulnerabilities in the N26 programming interface and excessive customer support made it possible to obtain data about other customers and earn money without the knowledge of the To transfer the account holder. N26 responded by eliminating the vulnerabilities and setting up a bug bounty program .

On October 12, 2018, it became known that the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) is examining the N26 photo identification procedure for verification when opening accounts. According to reports from WirtschaftsWoche , this should also be possible with forged identity documents abroad and does not meet the requirements of the Money Laundering Act . As early as 2018, the market watchdogs digital world and finance warned against a scam with identity fraud . Via fake job offers (jobcamming) or under the pretext of account tests, consumers were asked to identify themselves by opening an account with N26. The fished identity documents were used to open accounts that were used, for example, for fake shops .

At the end of March 2019, there were several press reports on problems with N26 customer service, especially after money was lost on N26 accounts: telephone customer service does not exist (any longer), electronic messages are not or only insufficiently answered and the customer chat is only manned during the day. Customers received no support for several weeks after phishing scams. A report shows a written dialogue between a customer who had 10,000 euros stolen from their N26 account and N26 customer service. When asked by the customer when they would get their lost money back, N26's customer service team replied, “Not at all. I cannot give you any further information now ”. Heise online reported on March 29, 2019 that a customer had been cheated of 80,000 euros in a similar fraud case and he probably only received a refund after he had contacted the press.

At the beginning of April 2019, financial institutions also complained about the poor accessibility of N26 in critical cases. The financial supervisory authority BaFin demanded the immediate correction of far-reaching deficiencies that had been identified during a special audit. According to Handelsblatt , the inadequate staffing, deficiencies in the management of outsourced tasks and the technology were criticized. If N26 does not manage to bring about the required changes as quickly as possible, the deposit business could be capped .

On June 16, 2019 presented some cooperative banks transfers to accounts of N26 and other direct banks temporarily. This measure was justified with an increase in fraudulent transfers to the accounts of these direct banks.

At the beginning of August 2020, employees wanted to hold meetings to establish a works council after internal conflicts . At the Berlin labor court, the management obtained an injunction against the initiators of the employee representatives. The reason given was an inadequate hygiene concept. In a letter published later by the founders it said "A works council would stand against almost all values ​​that we believe in at N26".

On August 14, 2020, the employees elected an electoral board behind closed doors, the police summoned by management checked the venue, but had nothing to complain about. The initiators of the works council election felt that their bosses had left them alone, and that trust in the managers was “at an all-time low,” reported the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The initiators pointed out that efforts have been made to change things in the company for some time, in meetings as well as via digital channels. Since this was unsuccessful, one now has to go new ways.

Investors

According to the company, investors include Allianz X , members of the Zalando management, Earlybird Venture Capital, Li Ka-Shing Horizon Ventures, Tencent Holding and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel through his company Valar Ventures. The London investor Hedosophoa is now the largest shareholder in N26. Axel Springer SE also has a stake of less than 5% through its accelerator Axel Springer Plug and Play . In addition to existing investors, the two venture capitalists Insight Venture Partners and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation were also involved in the financing round in mid-2019 .

Web links

Commons : N26  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. a b Master data of the credit institute at the Deutsche Bundesbank
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  3. https://mag.n26.com/de-europas-fuehrende-mobile-bank-209c9a8a6bff#.2l9sw8jhq
  4. Number26 boss Valentin Stalf: "We will offer loans in real time" . In: WiWo founder . July 21, 2016 ( wiwo.de [accessed November 9, 2018]).
  5. Numbers, data, facts. Nine Berlin companies that you should know. Berliner Morgenpost online, August 17, 2016.
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  9. Share of N26 customers in Germany in 2017, by age group. Retrieved October 17, 2018 .
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  11. CV Maximilian Tayenthal. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 11, 2018 ; accessed on January 10, 2018 .
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  34. Marktwächter Digitale Welt: Identity theft when looking for a job. July 26, 2018, accessed August 13, 2019 .
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  36. Caspar Tobias Schlenk: N26: 80,000 euros gone through phishing - and the bank can hardly be reached . March 28, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed April 4, 2019]).
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  41. dpa : After fraud cases: Volksbanks suspend payments to N26 & Co. In: Heise online . June 16, 2019 . Retrieved June 16, 2019.
  42. Axel Kannenberg: Dispute over works council at N26: Management obtains an injunction. In: Heise online . August 13, 2020, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  43. Zacharias Zacharakis: "Against almost all values ​​that we believe in at N26". In: Zeit Online . August 13, 2020, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
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Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 58.1 ″  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 45.5 ″  E