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The company said it would close all customer accounts “in the coming months”, saying the move was caused by disruption from the loss of so-called “passporting” rights that allowed it to operate in the UK using its German banking licence.
However, rivals and fintech experts questioned whether the bank had simply given up after struggling to gain momentum in the unusually competitive UK market.
N26 is Germany’s most valuable financial technology start-up, with backers including Tencent, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, and insurance group Allianz. It has gained more than 5m customers in total but has not released official figures for the UK since its last investment round in July, when it said it had more than 200,000 customers and was adding around 1,000 per day.
One person close to the bank acknowledged it had “underestimated the cost and complexity of operating” in the UK, and said the impending regulatory changes with Brexit forced it to make a decision quickly on whether to commit to the country. [...]
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