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Berlin (dpa) - The smartphone bank N26 was able to win around two million new customers in the Corona crisis.

"We continued to invest heavily in growth and expanded our customer base to seven million people," said N26 co-founder Valentin Stalf of the German press agency.

At the same time, the loss in the European core market was reduced by a third to 110 million euros in 2020.

"Our business model enabled us to continue to grow rapidly and in a very sustainable manner, while at the same time strengthening our digital value proposition and our relevance in a challenging economic environment," said Stalf.

The expansion activities are leaving visible traces on the balance sheet: In 2019, the overall loss was significantly higher than in the previous year.

Including activities on the banking market in the USA and the failed market offensive in Great Britain, the total loss amounted to almost 217 million euros, including 165 million in the European core market.

In 2018, the financial start-up posted losses of 70 million.

But sales also rose rapidly from just under 44 million (2018) to just under 100 million (2019).

The most important sources of income are the fees for premium accounts and commissions for payment transaction services.

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Last year, N26 adjusted its product range due to the changed consumer habits in the corona pandemic and the drastic decline in vacation and business travel.

With the new N26 Smart premium account, the company is no longer targeting frequent travelers, but rather those who want to achieve their savings goals at home.

Stalf rejected rumors that he wanted to go public with the recruitment of long-time Zalando manager Jan Kemper as CFO.

N26 will probably be “ready for the stock exchange” by the end of 2021 in terms of internal structures, reporting and the composition of management.

“We might even make the decision to go public in 2022.

But that has to be prepared operationally. "

But it could also be that N26 takes more time.

"That also depends on how business will develop in 2021 and 2022."

N26 also wants to increase the number of employees.

The current workforce of 1,500 is to be expanded by 200 to 250 new employees.

100 new jobs are to be created in Berlin, around 50 in Barcelona and an additional 70 in Vienna.

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For the current year, Stalf announced further product extensions.

You should also be able to trade stocks or funds via N26 or acquire crypto currencies such as Bitcoin.

Furthermore, one will expand the insurance offer.

They rely on cooperation with third-party companies.

So far, N26 has been working with Raisin Bank (Weltsparen.de), the payment service provider Transferwise and other partners.

Stalf is calm about a possible classification of N26 as a financial holding by the German banking regulator Bafin.

N26 is already operating as a fully licensed bank in Europe.

A classification as a financial holding has no major impact on N26.

"Nothing will change for our customers or for our business model."

The regulator has been in communication with the regulator for a long time.

On principle, however, one does not comment on ongoing conversations.

In the Wirecard scandal, the top Bafin banking supervisor Raimund Röseler was criticized by the opposition in the Bundestag for failing to classify the parent company Wirecard AG as a financial holding company.

Bafin only supervised the Wirecard Bank subsidiary directly.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210128-99-203276 / 2