N26 history

N26 was founded in Berlin in 2013 by Austrian entrepreneurs Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal. The company initially operated under the name Papayer before becoming Number26 and subsequently rebranding as N26 in July 2016.

The founders established the business to develop a mobile-first banking platform offering digital financial services without relying on a traditional branch network.

N26 launched its first banking product in January 2015 and received its full German banking licence on 21 July 2016, enabling the company to operate independently as a licensed credit institution.

Before cofounding Number26, Valentin Stalf studied accounting and finance at the University of St Gallen, Sophia University in Tokyo, and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. During his studies, he worked in strategy consulting and investment banking.

After studying, he entered the internet incubator Rocket Internet, where he took part in the foundation of several companies and worked as entrepreneur in residence.

Maximilian Tayenthal studied business administration, international law, and management in Vienna, Rotterdam, and Paris. Before founding N26, he worked as a strategy consultant at Booz&Company and as an assistant to the CFO at Austria’s largest insurance company.

Before obtaining its own banking licence, Number26 provided digital banking services through a partnership with Wirecard Bank AG, an institution holding a German banking authorisation.

On 21 July 2016, N26 received its banking licence from the German regulatory authorities under the European banking supervisory framework. This enabled the company to provide banking services independently rather than relying on another bank’s licence.

N26 is a fully licensed German credit institution, not an unlicensed financial intermediary or a non-bank.

The bank is subject to applicable European banking legislation and supervision by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

N26 Bank SE operates under the European banking regulatory framework, including requirements concerning capital adequacy, liquidity, governance, depositor protection and anti-money laundering compliance.

It provides complete online banking: creating and maintaining current accounts, managing debit cards, storing, and transferring money. All the functions can be accessed through the website or a smartphone app.

N26 entered the United Kingdom in October 2018 but subsequently discontinued its UK banking operations in April 2020 following Brexit.

In November 2021, N26 also announced its withdrawal from the United States, closing its US consumer banking operations in January 2022 to concentrate on the European market.

As of 2026, N26 operates in 24 European markets through its German banking licence and applicable cross-border arrangements.

According to the company’s financial results published on 25 June 2026, N26 had approximately 5.6 million revenue-relevant customers at the end of 2025, representing an increase of 16% compared with the previous year.

The figure of 5.6 million refers specifically to revenue-relevant customers and should not be confused with the total number of registered accounts.

Customer deposits exceeded EUR 10.5 billion in 2025, while annual customer transaction volume reached EUR 170.7 billion.

n26.com

History of N26

In 2013, the employee of the Rocket Internet incubator Valentin Stalf and his friend
Maximilian Tayenthal
, assistant to the CFO of a big insurance company, quit their jobs and founded the fintech-startup Papayer, which was soon renamed Number26.

Valentin Stalf: Maximilian and I have known each other since school. The trust is there—that is very important if you found a company together. In addition, our experiences and knowledge from different areas complement each other perfectly.

Maximilian worked in law, and I worked in start-ups. Showing that banking doesn’t have to be as cumbersome as the old banks imagine it to be is our goal.

Initial plans of the founders included launching a project for teenagers and their parents. According to the concept, one could create an e-wallet with this service and use it like a normal bank account.

Using this card, it would be possible to withdraw cash through ATMs, and the main feature would be the possibility of tracking of all financial operations with tools on the website and in applications of the company. According to their visionaries, it was a product that would interest parents who gave their children pocket money and wanted to know where they spent it.

After nine months of development, the entrepreneurs reconsidered the idea of the service and began developing a full-fledged mobile bank. The entrepreneurs saw more prospects in this direction of work.

In 2014, Stalf и Taienthal participated in TechCrunch Disrupt London – an annual conference about tech-startups. The founders told about the service and presented its closed beta version. But the project Number26 was coldly welcomed by the audience, and did not get the support of investors.

Investments in the company

In 2014, the company was still cash to grow: Earlybird Venture Capital invested €2m in this startup, one of the prominent venture capital investors in European technology companies.

In total, N26 has received more than $512.8 million in financial backing between 2014 and 2019. Investors include PayPal founder Peter Thiel, Hong Kong billionaire Li Kashin, as well as Tencent, Insight Venture Partners, GIC, Allianz X, Horizons Ventures, Greyhound Capital, Battery Ventures, Zalando and Redalpine Ventures.

N26 claims that it is the largest round of equity funding by a non-IPO company in the German Fintech sector to date and one of the largest in Europe. Online bank N26 was listed among one of Europe’s most promising startups back in 2018, according to TechCrunch.

The emergence of neo bank N26

In January 2015, Stalf and Taienthal introduced Number26, an online banking service. The firm launched applications for iOS, Android, and announced a website. For banking transactions, Number26 began collaborating with Wirecard, an internet technology supplier for electronic payments.

The company issued and processed both physical and virtual cards. To make the company’s cards accessible in every single part of Germany, founders of the firm added the payment system of Barzahlen. Accordingly, the customers of Number26 were able to refill their accounts and withdraw cash as well. Within one year, the company gained more than 200,000 users.

In July 2016, Number26 was renamed as N26. In the same year, the company obtained a European banking license with the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. The startup expanded later to launch in six other countries including France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia and Spain.

The Launch of the N26 in the UK

N26 officially launched its banking services in the United Kingdom in October 2018, entering a competitive digital banking market that included Revolut, Monzo, Starling Bank and other financial technology providers.

At the time, the United Kingdom was still a Member State of the European Union, allowing N26 to provide covered banking services through the applicable EU passporting framework based on its German banking authorisation.

The bank offered UK customers sterling-denominated current accounts, Mastercard debit cards and mobile banking services.

However, N26 announced in February 2020 that it would discontinue its UK operations because of the regulatory implications of Brexit.

All UK customer accounts were closed in April 2020.

As of October 2026, N26 does not provide new personal banking accounts to UK residents and does not operate an active UK retail banking business.

Thanks to the system of integration with the country’s banking system, N26 has been given bank sort codes. They determine in which banking system the bank is located and whether the accounts of its customers can be serviced. N26 users can fully avail of the functions of their account—for example, in paying utility bills.

Opening an account with N26

During the 2014 TechCrunch Disrupt London speech,
Valentin Stalf
called the speed of his product the main advantage against other European banks. In 2019, this statement has not lost its relevance. With the company’s website, you could allegedly open an account in eight minutes. You can also do it in the iOS or Android apps.

Valentin Stalf: The point is, we’re trying to change how a bank should work. I mean, we create an Uber or Spotify just in FinTech. We spent quite a lot of time enabling our customers to use the mobile bank in a proper way. So if you look at traditional banks, they usually have the large branch network using the 1980’s technology. We tried to create a model based on our mobile apps. On the display of their smartphone, there is everything that can be needed by a user.

Opening an N26 account is subject to residency, age, identity verification and eligibility requirements.

Applicants must generally satisfy the following conditions:

Be at least 18 years old.

Reside in a country where N26 currently accepts new customers.

Hold an identity document supported by N26’s verification system.

Own a compatible smartphone.

Complete the required Know Your Customer (KYC) and identity verification procedures.

Meet the bank’s applicable compliance and account eligibility requirements.

European Union citizenship alone does not guarantee eligibility to open an N26 account. Conversely, non-EU citizens residing in supported countries may qualify if their identification documents and residence status meet the bank’s requirements.

Identity verification may involve document scanning, biometric verification, photo identification or video identification, depending on the applicant’s circumstances.

N26 may also request proof of residential address, tax identification information or additional documentation.

Account approval remains subject to the bank’s individual assessment.

N26 Bank SE is a licensed German credit institution participating in the statutory German deposit guarantee scheme administered by the Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken GmbH (EdB).

Eligible customer deposits are generally protected up to EUR 100,000 per depositor, per bank, in accordance with the German Deposit Guarantee Act (Einlagensicherungsgesetz) and the applicable EU deposit guarantee framework.

Where an account has multiple eligible joint account holders, each depositor may benefit from an individual protection limit.

Certain qualifying temporary high balances, including funds arising from specified private residential property transactions or important life events, may benefit from additional temporary protection under German legislation.

Deposit protection does not automatically cover investments, cryptocurrencies or losses arising from fluctuations in the value of financial assets.

N26 customers may use their accounts for supported domestic and international transfers, card payments and other banking services, subject to applicable product conditions and regulatory requirements.

Valentin Stalf: Our goal is to create a fully mobile bank that would be as user-friendly as possible. We pay great attention to creating a fintech hub. We are trying to unite fintech and all related products so that the customer can access them from one application.

Opening an account with N26 is a quite simple and at the same time fully digital procedure. Here are the basic steps:

Note that this process might be different in the country you are residing in because the rules and regulations governing it may not be the same. Take note that the following program requirements need to be satisfied for one to open an account within their jurisdiction.

How N26 service works

You can enable push notifications: get information about transaction status or bank warnings if some suspicious activity is detected. You can block your card in a couple of clicks in the application in case of loss, unblock it, and even freeze your card for some period of time. All transactions and operations on the account appear in real time in the application of the bank.

Also in the mobile application, users can use customizable overdraft and financial tools. You could, for example, analyze what you have spent during a day, week, month or a whole year. Spending information is given, aware of geo-location-at cafes, shops, petrol stations and so on. Spaces, allowing you to create sub-accounts for storing and saving money, was the new feature launched by N26 in 2018.

It can also be mixed with the functionality of voice assistants. In the same year, 2016, the ability to send money using the Siri voice assistant was added to the N26 iOS application. For that, a user needs to tell whom and how much money to send, saying the command to use the N26 app.

Specifically, during the WWDC 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple presented the integration of Siri with iOS apps. The speaker gave examples with screenshots of the N26 app. Moreover, users of the bank can send money with iMessage.

N26 uses the technology of artificial intelligence in order to better understand their services. Therein lies one of the competitive advantages for launching a startup in the American market.

Valentin Stalf: All that is visible in the N26 app: your credit rating, your salary and all of your spending. But the majority of people don’t have enough time to deal with financial issues themselves and need good recommendations. For example, by analyzing the credit history, artificial intelligence will suggest options on what the user can spend money on.

If, based on your family’s budget, the algorithm believes that it would be better value to buy a flat rather than pay rent each month for a rental property, then it will suggest how to buy more affordably. All in the not-too-distant future.

The N26 supports a range of currencies but comes with a few features that are important to consider:

Terms and conditions and features are subject to change and it is advisable to check the updated information on the official website of N26 or their mobile application.

Map N26

N26 is one of the innovative banks set up in the year 2013 in Berlin, offering mobile banking based on ease and transparency. Its strong feature is that it comes with a contactless debit card linked to a mobile application through which users can handle their finances in real time.

On top of receiving instant transaction notifications, detailed reports on spending are available, limits on expenditure can be set, and cards may even be locked with the N26 app. It’s also developing innovative financial products for things like personalized savings plans or investment options.

Cooperation with different financial partners in many countries allows N26 to offer competitive exchange rates and small commissions for international transfers. Its users’ data security and transaction security are possible by using modern technologies of encryption and a multi-level security system.

It is the bank preferred by youths and digital nomads due to its flexibility, ease of use, and minimalistic design. N26 continues to extend its influence, offering new and more advanced solutions in the world of digital banking.

Commissions N26

Commissions at N26 depend upon the kind of account and services availed. Following are a few important aspects that are related to commissions in N26:

Note that terms and fees are subject to change, and it is always a good idea to check the latest information directly on the N26 website or through their mobile app.

How N26 earns its money

N26 generates revenue primarily through banking activities, payment services and customer subscriptions.

According to its financial results for 2025, N26 reported two major sources of gross profit:

Net Fee and Commission Income: EUR 184.2 million, representing approximately 53% of gross profit. This includes revenue from subscription services, card transactions and other qualifying fee-generating activities.

Net Interest Income: EUR 166.3 million, representing approximately 47% of gross profit under the company’s management reporting framework. This income reflects treasury and lending activities, including the relevant credit risk adjustments.

N26 offers paid account subscriptions, including Smart, Go and Metal, alongside its free Standard account.

The bank also provides savings, lending, investment and other financial products, subject to national availability and customer eligibility.

Artificial intelligence is used in certain operational and customer-facing processes, but it should not be described as an independent primary revenue category without supporting financial disclosures.

The composition of revenue is determined by the bank’s actual banking and financial services activities.

n26.com

N26 also sells a platform to other fintech companies where they can sell to N26 customers, and in return, they get a percentage of those sales.

Valentin Stalf: We want to inject some competition into this product. A couple of years from now, when we look at our platform, we’ll find loads of competing fintech companies that are competing for the attention of the user. The customer will be able to choose the best transfer rate or open a savings account on the most favorable terms and conditions. The service is to be based on personalized suggestions with the use of artificial intelligence.

N26 offers third-party instruments to invest money and open a savings account. An agreement has been signed by the bank with German companies Raisin and Vaamo in this regard. Raisin will let you open a savings account in just a few clicks.

And Vaamo offers investment asset management with robo-advisors. Technology enables the personalization of offers by offering the most favorable prices. This way, the robot replaces both a bank advisor and a dealer.

Also, it is possible to arrange insurance services on the bank’s website. For this purpose, N26 co-operates with the American insurance agency Clark. And the partnership of N26 with the German lender Auxmoney allows clients of the bank to send an application for a loan in several minutes. For this purpose, an electronic signature needs to be placed in a special window of the application, and information about the transaction has to be pointed out.

Valentin Stalf:

Thanks to the state-of-the-art customer experience system, it costs one-sixth of what traditional banks spend on serving a customer. That cost will continue to decrease-the more customers we have on our platform, the more we earn. This is the reason why growth remains a focus. We want to provide better and cheaper banking services for more customers across the globe.

Travellers rave about free cash withdrawals anywhere in the world. For international money transfers, N26 collaborates with TransferWise, a specialist in cross-border currency conversion. This model enables the company to charge lower fees for exchanging money internationally than is usual with conventional banks.

N26’s Drawbacks – registration using a fake passport

Wirtschaftswoche In 2018, German weekly Wirtschaftswoche, in an article, questioned the reliability of N26’s user identification. Wirtschaftswoche stated that it can be easily possible to create an account on the service using a fake passport. The company does not deny this.

Valentin Stalf, co-founder and CEO of N26:

There were people who provided us with forged passports, but unfortunately, we only found that out after they had already been registered. But this is a common problem and many banks are facing such cases.

To minimize cases of fraud, N26 constantly verifies all kinds of transactions of the customers of the bank. The company also co-operates with SafeNed, the platform for deposit management and customer identification.

Documents can be verified in several ways. You can have a video call with a bank employee so that he or she can check the passport and compare the photo in it with the face of the client.

German citizens can get their identity verified at the post office. Otherwise, you do a selfie holding a passport in front of you and send it in for verification. This is a popular form of identity verification in the UK.

It can only log in with password or fingerprint. The pin code is used to verify all online and offline transactions. To make the battle against malicious users active, N26 has started a reward program for finding errors or failures of the system.

Mass account cancellation in N26

In June 2016, Number26 faced criticism after terminating the accounts of several hundred customers, rather than 160,000 customers as incorrectly reported in some historical descriptions.

The company explained that a significant proportion of the affected accounts had been used for unusually frequent ATM cash withdrawals, creating substantial processing costs for the business.

At the time, Number26 offered customers unlimited free cash withdrawals, while the company itself incurred transaction fees payable to ATM operators.

The controversy led to changes in the company’s cash withdrawal policies, including the introduction of limits on free withdrawals.

The incident occurred before Number26 obtained its own banking licence in July 2016 and should be distinguished from subsequent regulatory compliance issues involving N26 Bank.

The bank itself pays the percentage for the transactions, and does not charge the customers for the withdrawal. For Germany, it is within the range from €1.5 to €2. Because of such massive cash withdrawals, N26 was obliged to close the active accounts not to incur losses.

Valentin Stalf:

In Germany, these have averaged between €1.5 and €2, well above the European average. We covered this fee on the assumption that most customers would use their accounts reasonably. But there were people withdrawing cash for months on end-15 times, and sometimes 30 times a month. We could not afford this.

To prevent these situations in the future, N26 implemented a “Fair Use Policy” for the residents of Germany. It brought in limits to commission-free cash withdrawals-up to five times per month-and brought in a “grace period” for new customers. Once the limit is reached, customers will be charged €1.5 to €2, and new account holders can receive unlimited commission-free withdrawals for three months.

N26 company cost

N26 has completed several significant investment rounds since its establishment in 2013.

In January 2019, the company raised USD 300 million in a Series D financing round led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and existing investors. The transaction valued N26 at approximately USD 2.7 billion.

In July 2019, the company secured an additional USD 170 million, bringing its extended Series D financing to USD 470 million and increasing its valuation to approximately USD 3.5 billion.

A further major financing round took place in October 2021, when N26 announced more than USD 900 million in Series E funding led by Third Point Ventures and Coatue Management.

Following this financing, the company was valued at more than USD 9 billion.

These valuations reflect historical private financing transactions and should not be interpreted as N26’s continuously updated market value.

According to N26’s financial results for 2025, customer deposits exceeded EUR 10.5 billion, reflecting the substantial expansion of its banking operations since the earlier investment rounds.

License N26

N26 is a German digital banking group founded in 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal, with its headquarters in Berlin.

The bank provides digital financial services to eligible customers across 24 European markets under its German banking authorisation and applicable European regulatory arrangements.

N26 discontinued its UK banking operations in April 2020 and withdrew from the United States market in January 2022.

The company’s management structure has also changed substantially.

Valentin Stalf stepped down from his role as Chief Executive Officer in September 2025, while co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal subsequently relinquished his executive management responsibilities.

Mike Dargan, formerly Group Chief Operations and Technology Officer at UBS, became Chief Executive Officer of N26 SE and N26 Bank SE in April 2026.

The bank’s current executive leadership includes professionals responsible for financial management, risk management, operations and technology.

According to the financial results published in June 2026, N26 had approximately 5.6 million revenue-relevant customers and customer deposits exceeding EUR 10.5 billion at the end of 2025.

N26 provides current accounts, savings products, payment cards, investment services, cryptocurrency trading and selected lending products, subject to geographical availability and eligibility requirements.

Bank N26 is a licensed bank and hence comes under the European banking regulations. Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning have been implemented in it.

N26 holds a full banking license issued by the
European Central Bank (ECB)
and the
German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin)
. This license came in July 2016 and was an important milestone for the company’s development into turning it from a dependent fintech on a partner bank regarding its core banking platform to a fully licensed bank. This transition enabled N26 to independently offer the full suite of banking services one would expect from a bank: from retail banking around deposit management for both personal and corporate bank accounts to more sophisticated banking services like lending.

Getting the banking license was only a proof that N26 met the tough set of prerequisites, such as regulatory standards, minimum capital requirements, and strong security and data protection measures. Having obtained a license, N26 is permitted to sell consumer loans in Germany and France and sell overdraft offers in Germany and Austria. It also grants local IBANs to issue bank accounts in Spain and Italy.

Eligible deposits held with N26 Bank SE are protected under the German statutory deposit guarantee scheme, administered by the Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken GmbH (EdB), up to EUR 100,000 per depositor, per bank, subject to the applicable statutory conditions.

Regulated United Europe (RUE) provides legal and regulatory consulting services to businesses intending to establish banking, electronic money and payment services operations in Europe.

The authorisation requirements depend on the financial activities to be performed.

A full banking licence, such as the authorisation held by N26 Bank SE, permits deposit-taking and other regulated banking activities within the scope of the institution’s permissions.

An Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence permits the issuance of electronic money and the provision of specified payment services but does not independently authorise unrestricted deposit-taking or the operation of a credit institution.

A Payment Institution (PI) licence represents a separate regulatory category covering payment services under the applicable European legislative framework.

Our legal team assists with selecting appropriate jurisdictions, preparing licensing applications, establishing corporate governance structures, assessing regulatory capital requirements and developing AML/CFT and operational compliance documentation.

Where a client intends to acquire an existing regulated financial institution, legal due diligence must also address the validity of its authorisation, supervisory restrictions, outstanding liabilities and any regulatory approval requirements concerning changes in qualifying ownership or control.

The granting or continuation of financial services authorisation remains subject to the assessment of the competent regulatory authorities.

Over the past few years, quite significant changes have been made to N26’s geographical operation strategy. For example, in the year 2020, because of Brexit, N26 had to shut down its operations in the UK; this was in accordance with the legislation that demanded a separate UK banking license following the exit of the UK from the European Union. It affected all accounts based in the UK, which were later shut down. To add up, in November 2021, N26 announced that it was withdrawing from the United States to focus on its core European business. This decision also meant that some 500,000 U.S. customer accounts were closed down and marked a shift in strategy toward the European market.

N26 operates as a licensed German credit institution and is subject to prudential supervision, financial crime prevention obligations, consumer protection requirements and other applicable European banking regulations.

However, its regulatory history has included significant supervisory interventions.

In May 2024, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) imposed an administrative fine of EUR 9.2 million on N26 Bank AG after identifying systematic delays in the submission of suspicious transaction reports during 2022.

On 15 December 2025, BaFin announced additional supervisory measures against N26 Bank SE following findings concerning deficiencies in business organisation, risk management and related operational processes.

The measures included the appointment of a special commissioner to monitor corrective actions, additional own funds requirements and restrictions on specified business activities.

In particular, N26 was prohibited from conducting new mortgage lending business in the Netherlands and from securitising claims arising from that business.

These measures demonstrate the importance of distinguishing the possession of a banking licence from ongoing compliance with all supervisory requirements.

N26 remains a licensed banking institution but must comply with the corrective measures and regulatory obligations imposed by the competent authorities.

Chronology of N26 by year

Regulated United Europe provides financial licensing services in Europe and will help take your project to the next level.