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N26 founder Valentin Stalf: A certain amount of trust
Photo: Wolfgang Kumm / dpa
The Berlin smartphone bank N26 has to curb its strong growth according to the will of the banking supervisory authority Bafin.
The authority published an order on Tuesday in Berlin, whereby the growth of N26 over the next few months in Europe will be limited to "a maximum of 50,000 new customers per month".
"The shortcomings in risk management (from N26) are due to the strong growth of the bank," explained the Bafin.
The limit includes all countries in which N26 Bank GmbH is active. At the same time, N26 was obliged to »take measures to restore proper business organization and contain risks to operational resilience.« A special representative appointed by BaFin will monitor the implementation of the measures ordered.
N26 had already announced the restrictions in mid-October in the context of a new financing round. The company, which is meanwhile again the most valuable fintech start-up in Germany, does not announce current customer numbers. Industry observers assume, however, that the finance house has won around 100,000 new customers per month in the past few months. At the end of September it became known that the smartphone bank had paid a fine of 4.25 million euros to the Bafin because reports of suspected money laundering had been submitted late to the banking supervisory authority.
Company co-founder Valentin Stalf interpreted the BaFin requirements in October as a certain trust "which the banking supervisory authority in N26 is placing as one of the fastest growing banks in Europe".
"With this decision we can continue our growth path." N26 will continue to strengthen the processes in the coming months.
"Against this background, the slowed growth that we agreed on after talks with the German regulator is okay with us."
mik / dpa
