N26 becomes AG and appoints supervisory board

Neobank announces the changes in possible preparation for an IPO.

The corporate structure of Neobank N26 is changing from a GmbH to an AG. According to the bank, this is a step on the way to becoming an SE (Societas Europae). As part of this announcement, the Berlin-based fintech N26 has also presented its new Supervisory Board. The new Supervisory Board members of the company, which was founded in 2013, are Marcus Mosen, Jörg Gerbig, Barbara Roth, Julian Deutz and Robert Kilian. This restructuring is an important step with regard to a potential IPO.

According to its own statements, Neobank will also receive a financial holding license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) this year, making N26 one of the few fintechs in Germany whose operational processes are also supervised by a regulatory authority beyond the banking business, such as Finanzbusiness writes. The relationship between Bafin and N26 is complicated. The license is preceded by a condition imposed by the authority, which limited the neobank's growth to 50,000 new customers per month and also a fine of 4.25 million euros for late submission of suspicious money laundering reports.

With a valuation of nine billion US dollars, N26 is one of the most valuable European start-ups and claims to have more than eight million users worldwide. To date, the neobank has raised around 1.8 billion euros from investors. N26 recently made a loss of 172.4 million euros.