Alexander Weber (N26): banking in the palm of your hand

Alexander Weber, head of International Markets of N26, a leading mobile bank, shares his views on the future of the banking markets. Interview.

Can you present N26 in a few words?

We redesigned banking for the smartphone, making it fast, easy, transparent and contemporary. N26 gives customers full control over their finances anytime, anywhere. All products can be accessed and controlled within the N26 app in just a few clicks. With complete control also comes heightened security. Customers receive real-time push-notifications the moment a transaction is made on their account, can alter their PIN or lock or unlock their card within the app at any time. We have also partnered with some of the most innovative fintechs and traditional players around the world to become our customer’s one stop shop for financial questions, replacing any other bank account. These features, combined with the exceptional design and unparalleled user experience we offer our customers is helping us to realise our vision of building a bank the world loves to use.

How do you imagine the finance industry in the medium to long term?

We expect to see massive changes in market share within the next 5 to 10 years. Especially in Germany, we expect that the banking market will become more specialised. Of traditional banks, in the future, one may be able to offer high-interest rates, another may become successful in the area of robo-advising. It will become increasingly difficult to find an all encompassing bank. As maintaining legacy technology and branch network becomes increasingly costly, traditional branch-based banks will be limited in creating new products and will be forced to focus on their core competencies. We see today as one of the fastest growing banks in Europe that our customers are primarily coming to us from traditional banks. Nothing is stopping customers moving to a bank that started from scratch and does not have the problems inherent to IT legacy and a branch network.

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Which relations do you have with large financial groups?

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As part of our strategy to become the one-stop shop for all financial questions of our customers, we partner with the most innovative fintechs and traditional players to provide best in class products for our customers at best rates integrated into the N26 app, everything that makes our product better and the financial lives of our customers easier.

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