Berlin Fintech Upvest cooperates with Neobank

Years of preparation seem to be paying off. In September last year, the Berliners announced the first cooperation in their company’s history with the digital asset manager Ginmon. In February of this year, the fintech was able to win the Berlin neobank Vivid as a second customer. Since then, the 500,000 Vivid customers have been able to trade shares and ETFs.

So far, however, the Upvest interface still has fewer than 100,000 users, i.e. only a fraction of the customers of the cooperation partners. The Berliners hope that 15 to 30 percent of Revolut customers will use the offer in the future, i.e. up to nine million customers.

In the future, Revolut customers in Europe will be able to access more than 100 ETFs, the minimum investment amount is one euro. First, a few global indices are covered, including the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and the Dax. However, customers can also invest in ETFs that cover not only stocks but also bonds and commodities.

Depending on the subscription model, users can trade commission-free monthly, metal customers ten times, premium customers five times and standard customers once.

After that, a variable fee of 0.25 percent, but at least one euro, is due per order. Revolut also charges a custody fee of 0.12 percent of assets per month.

The British neobank holds a banking license from Lithuania and can therefore be used throughout the EU. Deposits of up to EUR 100,000 are protected via the corresponding Lithuanian system.

Revolut is planning further market entries

For Revolut, meanwhile, it is the next step in their goal of becoming a global super app. In addition to multi-currency accounts, the neobank also offers stock and crypto trading. Customers can also invest in raw materials.

Last week, the British announced market entry in Brazil – the first step in Latin America. The company offers multi-currency accounts and forex trading to local customers.

“We are planning further new market entries in the summer,” said Wiktor Stopa, Head of Growth for the DACH region. These included Argentina, Sri Lanka and Chile.

German IBAN for customers in Germany

The British fintech also has big plans in Germany. Last year the number of customers in Germany was around half a million. According to the company, the number has doubled in the past twelve months. “We’re rapidly approaching the one million customer mark,” says Stopa.

Revolut wants to score points in the future, especially with a German IBAN for local accounts. So far, customers have only received a Lithuanian IBAN. “We aim to launch this new feature by the end of the year,” Stopa said.

In addition, the Revolut manager hints that there will also be a new savings solution exclusively for the German market in the second or third quarter.

Revolut promises a savings solution

Since the beginning of the year, a veritable battle on interest rates has erupted in Germany. Last week, the European Central Bank increased the deposit interest rate, which is particularly important for the financial markets, and which banks receive for their deposits at the ECB, from 3.0 to 3.25 percent. Neobrokers and banks outperform each other with new offers for call money interest.

“We want to offer solutions for every area of ​​investment,” said Stopa, but only with a view to the new savings solution.

>> Read here: German fintechs are increasingly attracting the interest of venture capitalists

Revolut is the biggest competitor of the Berlin smartphone bank N26. However, they continue to have problems with German financial supervision. Bafin believes that N26 has grown too fast for many years and has not evolved its processes and controls accordingly. N26 is therefore allowed to take on a maximum of 50,000 new customers per month.

Recently, an N26 investor made headlines: Allianz X apparently wants to part with part of its stake and accept a significantly falling valuation. Allianz expects the neobank’s valuation to be as low as $3 billion, according to media reports. In the last round of financing in 2021, the smartphone bank was valued at 7.7 billion euros.

With Revolut is apparently confronted with similar problems. A Revolut shareholder has reduced the value of his stake by 46 percent. This was recently reported by the financial news service Bloomberg. He does not want to comment on the bank’s assessment, says Stopa, “because it is not in my range of tasks”. It’s speculation.

The neobank last raised $800 million from investors in July 2021 and claims it was valued at $33 billion.

Auditor expresses concerns about the annual report

Unlike N26, which posted an annual loss of 172 million euros in 2021, Revolut made the leap into profit for the first time in the same year with a net profit of 26 million pounds (around 30 million euros). More recent figures are not yet known.

In the annual report, which according to its own statements was only published in March this year after a delay of several months due to an exchange of the internal accounting systems, the auditor BDO LLP had expressed concerns. It was said that one could not convince oneself of the completeness and of the income of 477 million pounds (around 540 million euros).

A Revolut spokesman for the bank said at the time that the total amount of income in the 2021 annual report was not in question. In total, earnings amounted to £850 million.

Stopa now said: “We don’t want to leave open any more different interpretations in the next annual report.”

More: Auditor raises concerns about earnings at UK online bank Revolut