Fidor Bank has been operating in the market for ten years with a banking license. The bank, which emerged in the context of the financial crisis of 2007, wanted to establish itself as the first digital “community bank” and oppose the concepts of the classic banks. Time for an interim conclusion.
The idea behind the Fidor Bank was not always easy to implement and met with some resistance, the company accounts for the tenth anniversary. Nevertheless, the development is still today an “impressive growth story”. The number of business customers has increased eightfold since 2014 and the number of end customers has quadrupled. In addition, the bank’s assets have increased fivefold in the past five years, amounting to 1.5 billion euros by the end of 2018.
Thrown back by crises in the financial environment
“We are extremely happy about what we have achieved, because we had the first challenge when it was founded. A few weeks after we applied for our banking license, the financial crisis also began in Germany in autumn 2007, “said Matthias Kröner, co-founder and CEO of the Fidor Group. In general, the company has felt every major crisis, such as the recent Brexit referendum.
Currently, the corporate group is divided into four areas. Fidor Retail, Fidor Bank, Fidor Free Zone Company, and Efficient Scale Marketplace. The company is currently discussing its future growth strategy with potential investors. “There is no better environment than what is currently being shaped, among other things, by reviews such as N26,” says Matthias Kröner. Still in March 2019, the discussions with the investors are to be decided on the further alignment.
Strong partnership with Bitcoin.de
In Banking as a Service, banks and non-banks can access Fidor Group’s digital banking infrastructure and partner companies such as Mastercard, Apple Pay, Salesforce, FinnAI. The so-called “Loan-as-a-Service-Customers” of the Fidor Group include O2 and Finanzcheck.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin.de has been an important customer in the field of “Transaction-as-a-Service” for five years. The platform can be used to deal with cryptocurrencies. Fidor Bank was the first financial institution to successfully introduce a transaction fee for crypto-related euro transactions. These transactions are initiated and executed on an API basis.