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last year N26 was like: "we've just opened our London hub. we're adding hundreds every day. we'll be hiring hundreds of people". this year: "With the UK having
by kmlx 7y ago
last year N26 was like: "we've just opened our London hub. we're adding hundreds every day. we'll be hiring hundreds of people".
this year: "With the UK having left the EU at the end of January, we will in due course no longer be able to operate in the UK with our European banking licence. Therefore, we are writing to share the news that we will be leaving the UK and closing all accounts."
translation: "not enough signed up in order for us to apply to the UK regulators."
honestly, this was by far the worst kind of response any startup can have. really amateurish.
- kmlx 7y agofrom my financial news insiders: "they left the UK since they didn't have any clients around. they figured that applying for a UK banking license would not make sense with such low numbers. thus, they've basically quit the market".
- znpy 7y agoThat's basically speculation.
- mytailorisrich 7y agoIn the UK, in the past years, we have got used to anything and everything being blamed on Brexit so people have really grown cynical about this 'reason'. Here, considering that they are faring poorly and that they launched in the UK after the EU referendum many people think (rightly IMO) that they are taking the piss by blaming Brexit. It's also not clear whether a full bank licence is required to offer basic current accounts. I believe that Revolut operated for years without one and that the bank licence they have now is in fact an EU licence. They seem to want to focus on the US, that's their choice.
- ptah 7y agocan you give examples of things blamed on brexit that is not, in fact, brexit's fault
- flurdy 7y agoQueues in Schiphol...
- rusk 7y agoNo, but expecting queuing to get better as a result of brexit is just ridiculous.
- mytailorisrich 7y agoJamie Oliver's failed restaurants?
- markvdb 7y agoIf they had managed to get enough clients in the UK, it would have made sense to apply for a UK banking license. If there hadn't been brexit, their banking license would have been EU wide, so they'd only have to look at their EU wide user numbers in total. In short, brexit is certainly one of the reasons.