71 employees have to leave the company.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt The Berlin smartphone bank N26 is laying off 71 employees, which corresponds to around four percent of the workforce. The company announced on Thursday morning.
“The past year has seen significant and long-lasting changes in the global business environment,” the statement said. With this in mind, N26 is sharpening the focus on its strategic priorities and ensuring its workforce structure is aligned with them. “As part of this process, managers at N26 analyzed their respective staffing needs in detail and adjusted team structures where necessary,” it continues.
N26 is now catching up on what numerous fintechs had to do last year due to the changed market environment resulting from a turnaround in interest rates, rising inflation and the war in Ukraine.
In June of last year, for example, the Berlin-based neobroker Trade Republic announced that it would be separating from some employees, while others should be given new tasks. However, new employees would also be added, and the size of the company should be retained.
The employees of the Swedish payment service provider Klarna were hit much harder. At the end of May last year, the company announced that it would cut 700 of its 7,000 jobs.
N26 is one of the most valuable fintechs in Germany. In the last round of financing in 2021, the smartphone bank was valued at 7.7 billion euros.
N26 arguably limited losses in 2022
The company is not profitable, in 2021 the Berliners posted an annual loss of 172 million euros. The then chief financial officer Jan Kemper indicated in October last year that the bank probably also made losses in 2022, but these were likely to be lower than in 2021. N26’s goal is to be in the black in 2024.
The company has a total of more than 1700 employees. According to the company, no further layoffs are planned for this year.
Recently, an investor in the company made headlines: Allianz X apparently wants to sell part of its stake and accept a significantly falling valuation. Several insiders told the Handelsblatt. The investment company of the Munich insurer holds 5.3 percent of the shares in N26. Allianz expects the neobank’s valuation to be as low as $3 billion, according to media reports.
N26 has problems with the Bafin
Problems with the German financial regulator also continue to concern N26. Bafin believes that N26 has grown too fast for many years and has not evolved its processes and controls accordingly. In November 2021, the Bafin therefore sent a special representative to the bank and ordered that N26 be allowed to accept a maximum of 50,000 new customers per month.
For a long time, the smartphone bank had concentrated on the classic banking business – and dispensed with other offers such as stock or crypto trading. In November 2022, the company then started a cooperation with the Viennese crypto start-up Bitpanda in order to at least be able to offer crypto currencies.
More: Allianz wants to sell shares in smartphone bank N26