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N26 will be leaving the UK

n26.com

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Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#101

Post by mytailorisrich »

threeseed wrote: post #93
mytailorisrich wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are using Brexit as a scapegoat. The referendum was almost 4 years ago and only last year they were talking about expanding in the UK. Some people might have been in denial but considering the political force of a referendum result and the glaring absence of any political alternative for years now, any other Brexit outcome was a fantasy and remaining in the single market never realistic. As you say the reality i…

I think you should follow UK politics more closely. Referendum was 4 years ago. But only until the recent election i.e. Dec 2019 did Johnson have the numbers in Parliament to actually "get Brexit done". And this week for the first time in 4 years, UK government is formerly advising businesses that there will be a hard Brexit: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-confirms-plans...

I am in the UK, I know all about Brexit and British politics ad nauseam.

The point remains that this isn't the key reason behind their decision. I guess it's easier to blame Brexit than to explain to your customers that you're closing their accounts because of good old business.

They launched in the UK after the Brexit referendum and they don't even need that bank licence to offer electronic current accounts in the UK (Revolut did that for 3 years and their current bank licence is also an EU one so may also become useless in the UK).

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#102

Post by Retric »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #83
mellosouls wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on whether those regulations are socially useful or not. It's not a given that should be the next step.

One of the Leavers' arguments was that the UK wouldn't be subject to the EU's regulations. They claimed that the EU rgulations were stifling and created too much of a nanny-state. Johnson's parliment is pretty much duty bound to create an environment of reduced regulation, otherwise they would be reneging on one of their most important platforms. Things like blatant crime should still be regulated, but creating an ea…

Regulations are not a single homogeneous entity. They could remove 5% or 95% of EU regulations and have kept their promise as long as the changes where a noticeable net positive.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#104

Post by blibble »

threeseed wrote: post #42
tablloyd wrote: post #18

I'm skeptical of Brexit being the reason that N26 is withdrawing from the UK. They started operation in the uk in October 2018, over 2 years after the referendum result and 6 months before the UK was meant to leave until the date got pushed back.

Not sure if you actually follow Brexit but the situation now is completely different to the last 2 years. Michael Gove this week formerly advised businesses that the UK is going down the hard Brexit path i.e. leaving the customs union, single market and with full regulatory divergence from the EU. Under these circumstances it is impossible to run a business like N26 in the UK serving the EU.

> Under these circumstances it is impossible to run a business like N26 in the UK serving the EU.

you have this the wrong way round: they are a bank based in the EU that was passporting their German (EU) license into the UK

in the near future they will not be permitted to operate in the UK as the UK will no longer accept their EU banking license

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#105

Post by felixfbecker »

danpalmer wrote: post #11

Businesses pulling out of the UK based on the Brexit process is bad for the UK, and I'm sure this was indeed mainly motivated by N26's need for a UK banking licence, which is a costly and difficult process to go through. However, it's worth noting that they are pretty small in the UK (~200k users). They're very successful in Germany where banking is a very slow, difficult, manually run industry (from what I've heard)…

SEPA transfers in Germany are both free and instant too. Not saying it's not a slow and manually run industry in general, but I have nothing to complain about transactions.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#106

Post by axaxs »

N26 just launched in the US, also. If their UK launch was anything like their US launch, I can see why. They made a lot of promises about how much better they'd be, but their offering is terrible compared to the competition here.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#107

Post by mietek »

danpalmer wrote: post #71
avh02 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was with hsbc for a year in the uk, I'd definitely not call it "generally very good" (ridiculous app and login infrastructure), but I have a sample size of one.

Yeah same. HSBC have struggled to improve their tech but they are improving now. They released a completely new app and got rid of that terrible login flow last year and apparently it's much better. You can still send a payment from HSBC, for free, instantly, to any other UK bank account. You can also just about do most things in their online banking. This more than can be said for some other parts of Europe.

Both HSBC and the HSBC-owned FirstDirect still have absolutely terrible apps.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#108

Post by tempsy »

Zenst wrote: post #2

As somebody who lives in the UK (London area), I've never even heard of this company N26, let alone aware that they had UK operations. I do frequent the web, youtube, bus stops, tubes, trains and utterly exposed to all forms of marketing. So from my perspective, this does seem like marketing failure from the start - at least from my perspective. Though the only real new Bank in the UK to do well, traction wise would…

They are the most funded neobank in all of Europe. I don't even live in Europe and have heard of them.

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#109

Post by qubex »

davidw wrote: post #63
_n_b_ wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

N26 is also very successful in France, whose banking industry is--I can confirm--very much slow, difficult, and _very_ manually run. They can charge fees for accounts because their fees are still so much lower than the incumbents they're displacing. (And you can do stuff without having to talk to your bank counsellor, at your one specific branch, in person... how novel!) So I can see how their model wouldn't be very…

> at your one specific branch, Italy is the same way and it is awful . We signed up for our bank account at one specific branch of a bank in Padova, Italy, and it's impossible to do much besides withdraw some cash at other branches. It's so dumb.

As an Italian, I understand this... but the obvious question is: why didn’t you open it at a branch more convenient for you?

Re: N26 will be leaving the UK

#110

Post by luckylion »

chimeracoder wrote: post #14
Zenst wrote: post #2

As somebody who lives in the UK (London area), I've never even heard of this company N26, let alone aware that they had UK operations. I do frequent the web, youtube, bus stops, tubes, trains and utterly exposed to all forms of marketing. So from my perspective, this does seem like marketing failure from the start - at least from my perspective. Though the only real new Bank in the UK to do well, traction wise would…

> As somebody who lives in the UK (London area), I've never even heard of this company N26, let alone aware that they had UK operations. They're a huge presence in mainland Europe, especially Germany, where they're the de facto bank of choice for all non-European immigrants living in Berlin, Munich, etc.

Is there a specific reason for that, do they offer easy intl transfers or are very welcoming with support in many languages etc? I've vaguely known they exist but have only a few days ago seen one of their ads on public transportation (which doesn't say much, I'm not in the city a lot, but still).
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