1. History

2. Product overview
     Availability    Mobile Payments    Fees    Security    Mobile transfers  

3. Controversy

4. References

5. External links

History

In April 2016, N26 received €10 million in a series A round by Valar Ventures.^[4]

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.^[5]

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 would become available to 17 Eurozone countries.

In March 2018, N26 raised $160 million in a series C round by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings and Allianz X (Allianz). On the same date, N26 claimed a customer base of 850,000, with the goal of having 5,000,000 customers by 2020.^[6]

In January 2019, N26 raised an additional $300 million in a series D round led by Insight Venture Partners with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and a few existing investors also participating at a valuation of $2.7 billion. With its new valuation of $2.7 billion, N26 overtook Revolut as the most valuable mobile bank in Europe.^[7][8]

Product overview

N26 provides a free basic current account and a Debit MasterCard card to all its customers, as well as a Maestro card for their customers in certain markets. Additionally customers can request 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, Spain and Finland. N26 has plans to expand into the United States in early 2019. In June, 2018, N26 launched N26 Metal, a super-premium banking option, which is currently available in Germany, Austria, France, Spain and Italy.

The account opening process can be completed via a video chat with N26's identity verification partner, IDnow, which according to its website takes about 8 minutes. Only holders of certain passports and ID cards can verify their identity online; others will have to visit a German post office if it is supported by Postident.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

Availability

N26 offers their services in 22 EU countries, their "N26 Black" product is not available in Greece and Slovenia. In the Netherlands customers can additionally request a Maestro card.

Some parts of the website and customer service are provided in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish regardless of the customer's residency.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}

Mobile Payments

N26 customers in several of its markets can use their smartphone for in-store purchases. N26 supports Google Pay in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, Finland and Spain, while it supports Apple Pay in Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain. Additional countries are added as both Google Pay and Apple Pay gradually expand throughout N26's markets.

Fees

N26 has a basic account with now monthly fee and charges no fees for basic banking transactions or credit card payments in foreign currencies. ATM withdrawals are limit to 3 (or 5) per month. N26 charges a fee for any additional withdrawal. ATM withdrawals in foreign countries are also subject to a fee, at least for basic accounts.

German customers can also withdraw and deposit money at retail locations.^[9]. While there is no fee for withdrawals up to 999 EUR, deposits are limit to 100 EUR and additional amounts are subject to a fee.

Security

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

Mobile transfers

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

Controversy

In June 2016 N26 notified several customers that their accounts were going to be terminated. The company cited as main reasons that some customers were making too many ATM withdrawals, while others were suspected of money laundering.^[10]

The unpopular introduction of the Fair Use Policy in July 2016 came as an aftermath of these terminations.{{original research inline|date=February 2017}}

During the transfer of its customer base to its own banking infrastructure, N26 customers took to social media to report various problems.^[11]

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.^[12]

Haupert had already notified N26 of the vulnerabilities back in September 2016.^[13]

N26 acknowledged the issues and claimed that they had been fixed before they became public, adding that no user account had actually been compromised.

In March 2019, Germany media reported that customers who had their account credentials stolen found it difficult to contact the bank and resolve the situation. In a widely reported case N26 took more than two weeks to restore access for a customer who had 80,000 Euro stolen from their account. Reports of customers missing their funds or being denied access to their accounts continued to surface as they complained that poor customer service and the lack of a telephone hotline made this kind of situation very difficult to resolve. N26 blamed the situation on its fast growth trajectory.^[14][15][16]

References

External links

• [https://n26.com Official Website]

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