Frankfurt, Munich The bank of the comparison portal Check24 has received a reprimand from the German financial regulator Bafin: C24 Bank must ensure proper business organization and meet additional equity requirements. The Bafin announced on Thursday.
The deficiencies were revealed by a regular special test last summer. The Bafin had already given the bank corresponding orders in December, which have now come into force, according to the statement from the financial supervisory authority.
The bank launched the Check24 comparison portal in mid-2020. C24 Bank has a full banking license. Among other things, it lures customers with a free checking account and brokers financial products from other banks.
According to financial circles, the number of customers is in the low six-digit range. The bank does not give any customer numbers. Compared to other neobanks, it is comparatively small. This is also due to the fact that the competition in the German banking market is fierce.
A Check24 spokesman explained that the company had agreed a roadmap for rectifying defects at C24 Bank with Bafin and the Bundesbank. The institute already met the increased equity requirements before the special audit last summer. You can meet these requirements without further capital measures.
Neobrokers lure with high interest rates
C24 Bank recently caused a stir: starting in April of this year, it will be offering interest rates of two percent on all current account models. The offer is valid up to a credit of 50,000 euros for both new and existing customers. From next year, the interest rate is to be fixed in relation to the deposit rate of the European Central Bank (ECB).
Lasse Schmid, general representative at C24 Bank, told Handelsblatt: “We believe that this step will enable us to win new customers and bind them to us in the long term.” So far, neo-brokers such as Trade Republic or Scalable Capital have been attracting customers with high interest rates on the credit. However, many classic banks are still reluctant to pass on the high ECB deposit interest rate to consumers – and usually only offer limited interest rates.
With the offer of the C24 Bank, customers do not even have to move their money to a call money account. According to Schmid, those who had no available liquidity for a call money account also received interest on their checking account balance.
Max Herbst, owner of FMH Finanzberatung, considers C24 Bank’s offer to be quite expensive from the institute’s point of view: “A bank would have to pay interest on every cent that ends up in the current account, which would be too expensive.” It is significantly more lucrative for banks , to pay interest on an overnight money account, because the customers themselves would have to become active here if they wanted interest, said Herbst.
In the past there had already been occasional interest rates on current accounts, but these were often significantly lower than the interest rates that customers received on overnight money. The C24 Bank currently pays 1.75 percent interest per year on the call money.
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