Seem like another way of saying "We failed in the UK so lets blame it on Brexit"
Haven't heard of anyone being a customer of N26.
N26 will be leaving the UK
171–180 of 517 posts
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Brexit affects business; they're not cleanly separable. Companies that were competitive before may not be anymore. The only real test would be to take projected metrics (in terms of business closures, job losses etc) from before the vote and compare to reality.
N26 is not competitive in the UK, Brexit or no Brexit, judging by the numbers. There are more established competitors and N26 is struggling to take off.
That may all be true (and it does seem to be), but it doesn't necessarily mean Brexit is a scapegoat.
With an EU-wide banking license, N26 can operate in any territory it chooses to, for relatively little marginal overhead. Once they need a completely separate banking license for the UK, it changes the model significantly and would need them to be significantly more successful to justify continuing operations here.
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of all the challenger banks Revolut seems to be the most used one across countries. Not as main account but quickly sending money around.
Interesting I would say Monzo is by a mile. Edit, I had a quick look at Google play downloads as a benchmark (Not great I know) but looks like you're right. Monzo is 1m~ Revolut is 5m~
I hear of Revolut more in the context of using it as a service for sending money internationally, but I know plenty of people who use Monzo for day to day banking (although most also still have an account with a normal bank).
It doesn't surprise me that more people have used Revolut at some point, but I would still expect that Monzo has more active users.
Edit: This is in the UK, I understand Monzo isn't quite as well known elsewhere.
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the sense that "Brexit means N26 needs to now file a lot of license paperwork that wasn't necessary under EU law," yes.
If they believed their business would make them money in the UK, filing paperwork wouldn't be an issue.
Making money isn’t enough, there’s also opportunity cost for not just money but finite administrative attention. For the same burden they could be pursuing a much larger EU market.
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of all the challenger banks Revolut seems to be the most used one across countries. Not as main account but quickly sending money around.
I've always found this slightly odd, since Monzo is an actual bank (and thus receives FSCS protection) whereas Revolut is not (and does not).
Among people I have talked with, and whose bank cards I have seen, in and around London, Monzo is far more popular than Revolut.
Revolut does have the advantage that it lets users maintain balances in multiple currencies at the same time.
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#176Earlier 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…
These things are complicated and to be argued; speaking in absolutes is not helpful or justified.
The most that can be said is that the Tories (and the harder Brexiteers) have a significant majority, which makes moves towards deregulation more likely - that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do, or will happen without considerable push-back from people who are not quite so ideological (or who are, but of the opposite persuasion).
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't. Why can't you use banks that agree to follow rules you like and be monitored by people you trust while I can use banks that agree to follow rules I like and be monitored by people I trust?
I don't know, let me think. Ah, right, 2008!
You obviously do not know how 2008 came about and what role state intervention played...
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
> if they had a market here worth saving, they'd apply for the licence. That basically amounts to a tautology: if getting a license would be worth it, they would get a license.
It's not a tautology at all, it's the patently obvious. The only business reason they have to not apply for the licence is that they won't have any profits left over afterwards. Ergo they aren't very profitable, unless you're claiming that the licence is designed to be so costly as to keep foreign companies out, which I highly doubt, given that Britain (and especially the Conservative party) like to attract foreign i…
Opportunity cost is another obvious reason to leave money on the table. If the company is small enough then they might rather focus on the EU first, esp. if they thought their specialty was “doorway to EU banking”.
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#179Businesses 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)…
Anecdote time - the only person I know who had an account (I work in London fintech at the moment) never used it and only opened it for the fancy translucent card. He seems to have accounts with all the 'challenger' banks.
Random question, but I'm moving to London in a few months, do you have any suggestions on banks or "challenger" banks I should go with?
(couldn't figure out how to DM you, not sure if it's possible on Hacker News)
Re: N26 will be leaving the UK
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Instant in Canada too. All banks use INTERAC, and transfers are truly instant.
I've found them to be instant for small amounts, such as what would be valid under tap-to-pay, but it takes a good 20 minutes up to 2 hours for larger amounts to be transferred and sometimes the bank calls you to validate the transaction. Not my definition of "instant" at that point. Also, due to technology reasons, not all Interac E-Transfer banks and credit unions support "autodeposit" which means if not supported, you have to click a link and then sign in to your online banking or banking app. Then pick an account to deposit to and enter the password or phrase the sender set. Not to mention having to add a contact first, which might require signing in to your bank again to validate the addition of the contact.
So ... if this is instant, it leaves a lot to be desired still. It's not as fast as sending someone cash over a messaging app, say. And it doesn't work well with international networks, and there are expensive fees for cancelling a transaction, and banks can waive the fees, but if you're on a free plan chances are you either don't have auto deposit, or you'll have to pay for the Interac E-Transfer fee. They commonly set it at $1-1.50 per send, when internally, transferring money between banks (such as with Canadian EFT) is barely a penny. Of course, an EFT transfer generally takes 2 days, but I can't imagine it has to take that long, you'd just have to do inter-bank settlement more frequently.