First-e was a

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

online bank Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial insti ...

during the

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of 1999–2001. The company was based in Dublin, Ireland and employed 280 people, with 250,000 customers. It operated on a licence from French bank Banque d'Escompte, an innovation that allowed it to get around the usual difficulties faced by European banking startups. It launched with €200m in funding from various institutions including Intel,

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

and Apax Partners and initially targeted the British market with a savings interest rate 2% higher than its high-street competitors, and gained 250,000 customers. A 2.4 billion euro merger with the Spanish online bank Uno-e was proposed 2000, but after the dotcom bubble burst in late 2000, parent company of Uno-e, BBVA called off the merger was in April 2001 and instead paid some €350m in compensation. First-e then sold its business to Direkt Anlage Bank of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in October 2001. First-e was owned by the Enba group of companies, created by Gerhard Huber, Peter Phillips, Christian Kaiser, Nicholas Malcomson and Xavier Azalbert. Its Board included Sean Donlon, a former Irish ambassador to the US and the late Sir Nicholas Redmayne who was also its chairman.

References

External links

first-e website
on the Internet Archive
Announcement of closure by Banque d'Escompte
on the Internet Archive Defunct banks of Ireland Online companies of Ireland 1998 establishments in Ireland 2001 disestablishments in Ireland Banks established in 1998 Banks disestablished in 2001 Online banks {{Europe-bank-stub

See also

References

External links