N26 becomes AG and appoints supervisory board

Neobank announces the changes in possible preparation for an IPO.

Neobank N26's corporate structure is changing from a GmbH (limited liability company) to an AG (stock corporation). The company says this is a step on the way to becoming an SE (Societas Europae). Berlin-based fintech N26 also unveiled its new supervisory board as part of the announcement. 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 possible IPO.

Neobank says it 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 operations are also supervised by a regulator beyond banking as a group of companies, as Financial business writes. Bafin's relationship with N26 is complicated. The license is preceded by a requirement from the regulator that limited the neobank's growth to 50,000 new customers a month and also a fine of 4.25 million euros for late filing of money laundering suspicious activity reports.

With a valuation of nine billion U.S. dollars, N26 is one of the most valuable European start-ups, with more than eight million users worldwide, according to the company. So far, the neobank has raised about 1.8 billion euros from investors. N26 most recently made a loss of 172.4 million euros.