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Neobank
A neobank (also known as an online bank, internet-only bank, virtual bank or digital bank) is a type of direct bank that operates exclusively online without traditional physical branch networks. The term "challenger bank" is used in the UK to refer to a number of fintech banking startups that emerged in the wake of the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Their services may be accessed by clients through their respective computers or mobile devices. The range of services provided by neobanks is not as broad as that of their traditional counterparts. Unlike incumbent banks, a large portion of the income of neobanks is mainly made up of transaction fees received when customers pay with their debit card. History The term ''neobank'' has been in use since at least 2016 to describe fintech-based financial providers that were challenging traditional banks. There were two main types of company that provided services digitally: companies that applied for their own banking license and compan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bunq
bunq B.V. (colloquially named bunq — bank of The Free) is an international fintech company with a European banking license operating in 30 European countries. It was founded in Amsterdam where its headquarters are currently located. The company was founded in 2012 by Dutch-Canadian entrepreneur Ali Niknam, who previously founded web hosting provider TransIP and The Datacenter Group. It began opening other offices from 2019 onward and currently has a presence in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Dublin, Sofia, Madrid, Brussels, Vienna and Warsaw. The company achieved unicorn status in 2021. bunq is often considered a challenger bank or disruptor. Early history (2012-2015) Much of bunq's early history is documented in the book BreakThrough Banking by Dutch author Siebe Huizinga. According to BreakThrough Banking, much of bunq's early efforts went toward obtaining a European banking license from ‘ De Nederlandsche Bank’, the central bank of the Netherlands. In 2014, bunq received a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qonto (neobank)
Qonto is a French online payment institution for freelancers and SMEs. The financial technology company was founded in 2016 and the initial product was launched in July 2017 in France. The service has been expanded to Spain, Germany and Italy since 2019. History The company was created in April 2016. In January 2017, Qonto raised €1,6 million in a seed round with Alven Capital, by billionaire Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures and a few business angels. In July 2017, Qonto raised another €10 million from existing investors Valar Ventures and Alven Capital and launches its service. Six months after the launch, 5.000 companies were using the service and in April 2018, Qonto had more than 10,000 clients. In July 2018, Qonto obtained the licence to be a payment institution from the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority. Qonto does not have a banking licence. In September 2018, Qonto raised another €20 million from its existing investors (Valar Ventures and Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chime (company)
Chime Financial, Inc. is an American financial technology company which provides fee-free mobile banking services that are provided by The Bancorp Bank or Stride Bank, N.A. Account-holders are issued Visa debit cards or credit cards and have access to an online banking system accessible through the company's website or via its mobile apps. Chime earns the majority of its revenue from the collection of interchange fees. Chime is not a bank and Chime customers do not have a customer relationship with its banks. Chime can and does cancel user accounts with no notice, it is not required to provide a reason for the cancellation to the customer or even have a reason. Customers cannot appeal to banking regulators to retrieve their deposits, which may not be returned in a timely fashion. Chime has no physical branches and does not charge monthly or overdraft fees, nor does it require an opening deposit or minimum balance to open a free checking account. As of February 2020, Chime ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viva Wallet Group
Viva Wallet is a European Neobank entirely based in Microsoft Azure with presence in 24 European countries. Viva Wallet Holdings owns a Banking License (VIVABANK SA). In January 2022, international media reported that Viva Wallet was the first Greek unicorn startup company after an agreement with JP Morgan Chase was announced. Viva Wallet is part of the Viva Wallet Group, consisting of the subsidiaries Viva Services SA, Viva Payment Services and Vivabank. History In 2000, Haris Karonis founded Realize SA in Athens, Greece, which initially operated as a software house. In 2006, Viva Services was founded and entered the voice over IP business and later travel services, followed in 2010 by an expansion to the e-ticketing market. In 2011, Haris Karonis and Makis Antypas founded Viva Payments, which is licensed as a payment institution for the European Economic Area, following the transposition of the PSD2 in the Greek institutional framework. Three years later, in 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monzo
Monzo Bank Ltd () is an online bank based in the United Kingdom. Monzo was one of the earliest of a number of new app-based challenger banks in the UK. Originally operating through a mobile app and a prepaid debit card, in April 2017 its UK banking licence restrictions were lifted, enabling it to offer a full current account. As of July 2022, Monzo had over 5.8 million customers. Their most recent financial results issued in July 2022, showed an annual net loss of £119M (an increase from the £116.2M lost in the previous year) on revenue of £154.2M. History Monzo Bank was founded as Mondo in 2015 by Tom Blomfield, Jonas Huckestein, Jason Bates, Paul Rippon and Gary Dolman. The team originally met whilst working at Starling Bank. In February 2016, Monzo set the record for "quickest crowd-funding campaign in history" when it raised £1m in 96 seconds via the Crowdcube investment platform. Two weeks prior to the name change, Monzo was granted a restricted banking licence, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zopa
Zopa is a British financial services company which offers deposit accounts and credit cards. It began as the world's first peer-to-peer lending company in 2005 and gained a full banking licence in 2020. The peer-to-peer side of its business closed in December 2021. History Zopa was launched in the UK in March 2005 as an arranger of peer-to-peer lending, connecting investors with individuals seeking loans. It was founded in Buckinghamshire in 2004 by a team from the internet banking company Egg Banking. Zopa grew steadily in the years prior to the financial crisis of 2007–2008. It navigated the period with no losses to investors' capital and only a small dip in returns during 2008. In September 2016, the first portfolio of Zopa loans was securitised on the European markets. In January 2017, Zopa became the first UK based peer-to-peer lending company to lend more than £2 billion worth of loans. Zopa became fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in May 2017. Foll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Direct Bank
A direct bank (sometimes called a branch-less bank or virtual bank) is a bank that offers its services only via the Internet, email, and other electronic means, often including telephone, online chat, and mobile check deposit. A direct bank has no branch network. It may offer access to an independent banking agent network and may also provide access via ATMs (often through interbank network alliances), and bank by mail. Direct banks eliminate the costs of maintaining a branch network while offering convenience to customers who prefer digital technology. Direct banks provide some but not all of the services offered by physical banks. Direct bank transactions are conducted entirely online. Direct banks are not the same as "online banking". Online banking is an Internet-based option offered by regular banks. In the United States, direct banks are defined as online/branchless institutions with federal banking charters, with either the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Challenger Bank
Challenger banks are small, recently created retail banks that compete directly with the longer-established banks in the UK, sometimes by specialising in areas underserved by the "big four" banks (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, and NatWest Group). As well as new entrants to the market, some challenger banks were created following divestment from larger banking groups ( TSB Bank from Lloyds Banking Group) or wind-down of a failed large bank (Virgin Money from Northern Rock). The banks distinguish themselves from the historic banks by modern financial technology practices, such as online-only operations, that avoid the costs and complexities of traditional banking. History Prior to changes in the regulatory landscape in the UK financial services industry, setting up a new bank, with a full UK banking licence, was extremely expensive and time-consuming. This led to a very small number of banks dominating the UK market—the so-called Big Four—with virtually no competi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starling Bank
Starling Bank () is a British digital challenger bank which provides current and business accounts. Starling Bank is a licensed and regulated bank, founded by former Allied Irish Banks COO, Anne Boden, in January 2014. Since its founding, it has received over £500m of funding. The company received its banking licence from the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority in July 2016. History Starling was founded by Anne Boden in 2014. In 2016, they raised £48 million. In February 2019 Starling raised £75m from Merian Global Investors. The following week, the company announced it had raised £100m from the Capability and Innovation Fund in the form of grant funding. The company launched its beta in March 2017. In March 2018, Starling launched business accounts. In February 2019, Starling launched personal Euro accounts in the UK. At first, Starling customers could make fee-free conversions between the Starling GBP account and Euro account, but in Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tandem Bank
Tandem Money is a company that owns Tandem Bank, one of the UK's original challenger banks. Tandem Bank is a digital bank with a mobile app, and no branches, with a mission to be the UK's greener digital bank. The acquisition of Harrods Bank in 2017, allowed the company to provide services using the former's banking licence. Tandem Bank Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Tandem has offices across the UK in Blackpool, Cardiff, Durham, London and Manchester, employing over 500 people. History The company was founded by Ricky Knox, Matt Cooper and Michael Kent in 2014. In December 2016, Tandem announced that it had secured a £35 million investment from The Sanpower Group, the Chinese company that also owned the department store House of Fraser; however, £29 million of this investment was later revoked by Sanpower over concerns that the Chinese Government would object to the investment following increas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monese
Monese is a British-Estonian company that offers current accounts and money transfer services as an alternative to traditional banks. The mobile-only service provides accounts in Pounds sterling, Euros and Romanian leu, and is available in 31 countries across the European Economic Area. As of January 2020, it has over 2 million customers. History Monese was founded by Norris Koppel, an entrepreneur from Estonia. Koppel moved to the United Kingdom and had his application for a current account at a major high-street bank declined because he could not provide local proof of address and did not yet have credit history in the UK. This experience led Koppel to vow that one day he would launch a banking service that did not exclude customers based on their residency or lack of credit history. The company completed its seed round in May 2015, raising $1.8 million from Seedcamp, early Spotify investor Shakil Khan and several other angel investors. Monese launched its first product, an ins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adyen
Adyen is a Dutch payment company with status of an acquiring bank that allows businesses to accept e-commerce, mobile, and point-of-sale payments. It is listed on the stock exchange Euronext. Adyen offers merchants online services for merchants to accept electronic payments using payment methods including credit cards, debit cards, wire transfers, and real-time bank transfers based on online banking. It connects merchants to different payment methods, including international credit cards, local cash-based methods, and mobile payment methods. The technology platform acts as a payment gateway and a payment service provider. History Adyen was founded in 2006 by Pieter van der Does and Arnout Schuijff, now the CEO and CTO respectively. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company employs around 2,000 people in offices in twenty three countries. The name Adyen means 'start again' in Sranan Tongo. This is a reference to this being the second project of the founders, after Bibit. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
