2023-07-16 09:29:00
Hugues de Tournemire // photo credit: Christophe Gateau / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP 11:29 a.m., July 16, 2023, modified at 11:51 a.m., July 16, 2023
Do you know N26 or Revolut? These are called neobanks. They are not backed by large traditional banks such as Boursorama, Société Générale’s online solution, or Hello Bank, BNP Paribas’ online bank. But not enough to scare the French since they are gradually gaining market share.
They offer the same services as a traditional bank, but simpler and more efficient. Neobanks, generally exclusively accessible online, might put some people off for this reason and yet they are attracting more and more French people. This is the case of Tanneguy, who was particularly attracted by the payment facilities of the neobank Revolut.
The 26-year-old was tempted five years ago following leaving his bank HSBC, and does not seem worried regarding moving away from traditional establishments. “The registration process is extremely simple and I needed an account fairly quickly that I might use abroad: all the features of a bank, simpler, faster, more efficient,” he says. “It doesn’t scare me at all to be in a bank that isn’t physical.”
No possibility of overdraft or booklet A
The British Revolut and the German N26, which have more than two million customers each, aim to steal the market leader position from Boursorama, which has 5 million users in France.
Faced with these new competitors, the French online bank is almost getting old, as Laurent Foulioux, an expert in the banking sector, analyzes. “It has become a bank that is a little more expensive than neobanks. The products and offers that are offered are completely different and Boursorama is starting to do online banking by trying to adopt the codes of the bank retail by offering mortgage services, things like that. But that is very expensive!”, estimates the expert.
Mortgage is therefore one of the black spots of neobanks, as is the absence of a passbook A or the possibility of an overdraft.
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