N26 gives up US business

The company now wants to focus on the European market. Outside the EU, N26 is now only active in Brazil.

The Berlin-based neobank N26 has announced that it is discontinuing its business on the North American market. The banking service will no longer be available to customers in the USA from January 11, 2022. N26 has already had to withdraw from a large market once before: At the beginning of 2020, the bank announced its departure from the UK.

N26 now operates almost exclusively in the European Union. The company only recently launched a test balloon in Brazil. In Europe, however, it remains the market leader in digital banking. N26 recently raised 900 million US dollars in a financing round and is now looking to add a number of financial products and services to its offering. N26 is also increasingly looking to expand into Eastern European countries.

The news is likely to have caused great disappointment among N26 employees in the USA. After all, the company announced that it wanted to help everyone "to find open positions in its global operations where possible".

The withdrawal from the US market is not the first setback N26 has suffered this November. There were also problems in the bank's home country: just a week ago, it was announced that the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) had ordered that N26 may only accept 50,000 new customers per month, among other things. This was due to deficiencies in risk management and outsourcing management. A special commissioner appointed by Bafin is now keeping an eye on the bank.