N26 (bank)

N26 Bank GmbH
Industry Financial services
Headquarters Berlin
Area served
 Germany (primary) and Eurozone
Website n26.com
N26 Maestro International

N26 (known as Number 26 until July 2016) is a German direct bank, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, that offers its services throughout the Eurozone, with the exception of Cyprus and Malta.[1]

Product Overview

N26 provides for free a basic current account and a Debit MasterCard card to its customers.[2][3] Additionally customers can request an overdraft, investment products and premium current accounts.[4][5] The premium MasterCard product, referred to as N26 Black is currently available in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain.[6]

The account opening process can be completed via a video chat with N26's identity verification partner (IDnow)[7] and, according to its website, takes 8 minutes. Only holders of certain passports and ID cards can verify their identity online, others will have to visit a German post office.[7] N26 accepts customers from all Eurozone countries except Cyprus and Malta, for its basic current account and Debit Mastercard product.[1] In Germany, Austria and the Netherlands customers can additionally request a Maestro card.[8] 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.

N26 charges no fees for basic banking transactions, but has introduced a Fair Use policy for its German customers.[9] This limits the number of free ATM withdrawals in Germany to 3 or 5 per month, depending on the customer's profile. Outside Germany there is no such limitation. According to the company this is because of the higher cost of ATM withdrawals in Germany. For its German customers N26 offers CASH26, an alternative method of withdrawing cash for free without any limitation at various retail locations.[10]

Customers can lock and unlock their MasterCard through the app without having to contact N26 support. They can similarly enable and disable it for usage abroad or online usage, or modify the daily limits for cash withdrawals and card payments.

The N26 app can scan the users' contacts in their smartphone and identify other N26 account holders.[11] Using a service called Moneybeam a N26 customer can send funds to these contacts without having to fill in their IBAN.[12] Moneybeam transfers are executed instantaneously.[13]

History

In April 2016, N26 received €10 million in series A round by Valar Ventures.[14] Valar Ventures was co-founded by Peter Thiel, PayPal's co-founder.

Initially Number 26 started operations without holding a banking license; instead it was merely an interface while the back end was provided by Wirecard. In July 2016 it rebranded as N26 Bank, having received its own banking license from BaFin.[15]

In July 2016 N26 also announced its Fair Use Policy for customers residing in Germany. This created a backlash on social media by unhappy customers.

In November 2016 customers were asked to transfer their accounts to N26 Bank's infrastructure. As a result they would have to get a new account IBAN number, while the previous accounts held by Wirecard would be terminated.

In December 2016 N26 announced that its basic current account became available to 17 Eurozone countries.[16]

Controversy

In June 2016 Number 26 notified several customers that their accounts were going to be terminated. The company cited as main reasons the fact that some of them were making too many ATM withdrawals, while others were suspected of money laundering.[17] The unpopular introduction of the Fair Use Policy in July 2016 came as an aftermath of these terminations.

During the transfer of its customer base to its own banking infrastructure, N26 customers took on social media to report various problems.[18]

In December 2016 Vincent Haupert, a research fellow in computer science from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, demonstrated how he could take advantage of security vulnerabilities in order to get access to N26 users accounts.[19] Haupert had already notified N26 of the vulnerabilities back in September 2016.[20] N26 acknowledged the issues and claimed that they had been fixed before they became public, adding that no user account had actually been compromised.[21]

References

  1. 1 2 https://support.n26.com/read/000001280?locale=en
  2. ↑ https://n26.com/bank-account/
  3. ↑ https://n26.com/mastercard/
  4. ↑ https://n26.com/n26-invest/
  5. ↑ https://n26.com/overdraft/
  6. ↑ https://n26.com/black/
  7. 1 2 Running, Thomas K. (2017-04-04). "How to open a N26 Bank account—from anywhere". Nomad Gate. Retrieved 2017-05-09.
  8. ↑ https://support.n26.com/read/000001266?locale=en
  9. ↑ https://n26.com/fair-use-policy-germany/
  10. ↑ https://n26.com/cash26/
  11. ↑ https://support.n26.com/read/000001269?locale=en
  12. ↑ http://howitravel.co/n26-review/
  13. ↑ https://n26.com/moneybeam/
  14. ↑ Dillet, Romain (2016-04-16). "Number26 Grabs $10.6 Million To Bring Its Bank Of The Future To Everyone". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  15. ↑ Dillet, Romain (2016-07-21). "Number26 is now a true bank as it now has a full banking license". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  16. ↑ "N26 goes Europe" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  17. ↑ "Number26 closed accounts because customers made too many ATM withdrawals". Finextra. 2016-06-06. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  18. ↑ Wirminghaus, Niklas (2016-12-21). "Der Shitstorm zieht nicht ab". Gruender Szene (in German). Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  19. ↑ Ghosh, Agamoni (2016-12-29). "Smartphone bank N26 is not safe and exposes users to hacking, says researcher". International Business Times. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  20. ↑ Wirminghaus, Niklas (2016-12-14). "Massive Sicherheitslücken bei N26 aufgedeckt". Gruender Szene (in German). Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  21. ↑ "HOW N26 BANK PROVIDES SECURITY OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT". N26. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
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