Key Takeaways:
- German neobank N26 to launch crypto trading later this year
- N26 intends to “sharpen its focus on its European business”, by introducing new products and services to its 7 million customers.
- The N26 mobile app currently lacks crypto functionality, and details about the upcoming product’s crypto trading features have yet to be revealed.
After striving for global expansion, German neobank N26, one of the largest European fintech with a valuation of more than $9 billion, is finally ready to tackle crypto and equities trading. Despite being a pioneer in Europe’s financial technology boom, Berlin-based online bank N26’s global ambitions hampered its service diversification, according to N26 co-founder and co-CEO Max Tayenthal in a Financial Times interview.
N26 intends to “sharpen its focus on its European business” after exiting two critical fintech markets, the United States and the United Kingdom, introducing new products and services to its 7 million customers. Tayenthal, who admitted that the online bank’s product universe needs to be expanded, stated that N26 plans to launch a crypto trading business in 2022, followed by an equities brokerage, rather than “putting flags in new markets.”
The N26 mobile app currently lacks crypto functionality, and details about the upcoming product’s crypto trading features have yet to be revealed. When N26 teased additional financial products and services for its European customers in November, it announced its exit from the US market.
N26 announced that its digital banking experience will be unavailable to customers in the United States after January 11, 2022. The announcement comes as the digital banking leader sharpens its focus on its European business, focusing on expanding its offering beyond current accounts to include additional financial products and services.
In the coming year, N26 will focus its strategy on expanding its digital banking experience into new verticals, including investment products, to create an even more complete and compelling digital proposition. In addition, N26 aims to further empower customers by incorporating additional financial services and products into its experience, allowing them to manage additional aspects of their financial lives simply and seamlessly.
The announcement said that “N26 will focus its strategy on broadening its digital banking experience into new verticals to include investment products in the coming year.”
In May 2021, the German financial watchdog BaFin imposed several restrictions on the company due to a lack of anti-money laundering controls.
N26, which accepted an average of 170,000 new clients per month last year, BaFin has ordered not to accept more than 50,000 new customers per month. Describing the BaFin-enforced new customer cap as a massive restriction for the growth investor-funded fintech, Tayenthal said he expects the condition to by late summer 2022.
