N26 leaves the UK

Gawd bless you all who scream smoke screen, it’s not a great thing to see a growing company think the UK isn’t worth further investment because the regulatory environment is so unstable and uncertain.

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On saying that, it’s one less competitor… they can hardly say they didn’t see this coming. Investors in N26 have some questions to ask here. It’s very solipsistic for us to blame Brexit, a bit of planning on their part would have made Brexit irrelevant.

Google Cache delivers?

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That didn’t age well

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We are 100% focused on ensuring minimum disruption to our customers whatever the outcome or timing of Brexit.

Erm… I don’t think it was really 100%! :sweat_smile:

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Given that N26, serves other areas outside of the Eurozone, can any real weight be placed on the Brexit being to blame ?

Wouldn’t the UK, just be another area outside of the Eurozone, N26 could cover - if they really wanted too.

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I don’t understand why they attempted to enter the UK market at all considering that when they did so, Monzo and Starling already had more or less cornered it.

They should’ve instead saved their money and focused on other EU countries where the banking markets are ripe for disruption.

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Come on Lets not turn this in to something it’s not - I don’t want to get in to a Brexit argument as it done and there is nothing anyone can do about it

N26 started in the UK in 2018 knowing full well the uncertainty.

They have not bothered trying to get a UK license as it is extremely complicated

They could have had a further 3 year grace period if they wanted it And during that time a good trade deal could have be ageed that would solve all their issues

They have simply decided that after 2 years they have failed to make a dent in the U.K. market mainly due to Revolut, starling and monzo

200,000 users who hardly use their accounts and don’t pay their Salaries in to it is a overhead they could do with out and could use the money spent here better in their German market where they seem to be quite dominate

This is a face saving exit and are doing it now because if they leave it any longer they would lose the opportunity to blame it on Brexit

I really don’t think this can be blamed on Brexit

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To be fair, I don’t think Brexit is a bad excuse, but mostly because they just didn’t have a client base to justify it. Cost of obtaining a UK banking license just for 200k clients and keeping up with what will probably be fast pace of change in regs around it was probably more than they were willing to pay.

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I transferred a pound into my N26 account in November 2018, and I’ve just transferred it out today.

I imagine there are a few N26 customers like me and we’re not making them any money. But then my N26 account hasn’t really offered anything useful in terms of functionality, so :man_shrugging:

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Closed mine ages ago.

They warned me that I would not be able to rejoin.

Oh dear, oh dear :rofl::joy:

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We don’t have a no-deal situation the deal is the grace period.

Currently, in the ‘deal’ period, all EU passporting rules apply. A no deal period could return in December this year, as is well known, and N26 would have 3 years from then.

The ‘grace period’ is what the UK would unilaterally apply on EU banks (without EU reciprocity) in this eventuality. Whilst subject to change, I highly doubt it would as it is a key sector.

An interesting comment on the situation:

Ali Niknam, chief executive of Dutch challenger bank Bunq, for example, said “based on the current rules and regulations, we see no regulatory reason to leave the UK”.

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The UK needs more challenger banks not less. And regardless of people’s views on Brexit, Brexit was clearly a factor that made them have to review their position and decide financially whether it’s worth investing the time and money into the necessary steps and licensing required in the future for post Brexit.
They chose to close the UK arm of the business instead.

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Oof! To think of all that money they spent before Xmas buying every single advert in a number of tube stations, which all had to be placed in the right order to read words up the escalators and corridors.

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I’m not so sure - the marketing campaigns in London were massive, and definitely didn’t look cheap. Although I guess investing in marketing without investing in the product was their downfall…

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Starling are already advertising based on this :joy:

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Downfall implies they’ve stopped completely, they haven’t, they’ve just chosen to exit the UK market. The fact they’re investing in other countries says they don’t believe the UK market is worth the financial effort and time for them as an organisation.

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says they’ve come to terms with having a lower quality product than the UK competition and throwing millions of pounds on instagram/tube ads doesn’t automatically result in customer growth and retention. And yeah I meant UK downfall, not global.

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The @N26UK Twitter account reads weirdly in hindsight. Up until last week it was business as usual, all New Year’s goals and “vote for us at the Banking Awards”.

This was obviously a very swift decision. The optimism about still conquering the world on the German homepage press release seriously jars with the implication that it’s world-without-UK.

The UK banking market is poorer for having one less competitor.

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