N26 announced the launch of its French IBAN bank accounts.

Aimed at combating IBAN discrimination, the French IBAN gives French consumers another reason to leverage N26 as their primary bank account. Starting today, all new N26 customers in France will receive a local French IBAN. Existing customers of the German-regulated digital bank will be migrated from their German (DE) IBAN to a new local French (FR) IBAN over the coming weeks, with the migration of all customers expected to be concluded before the end of 2023.

Underlines Jérémie Rosselli, GM N26 France & Benelux.

Jérémie Rosselli

“While the European single market exists for the benefit of customers, with EU legislation mandating seamless acceptance across borders for all European IBANs, IBAN discrimination continues to exist today. This sometimes creates unnecessary friction for banking customers who may struggle to deposit their salaries or pay for utilities if they do not have a local IBAN. At N26, we want to change the world’s relationship with money for the better, and strive to offer locally relevant products that meet our customer’s needs in every market. Having launched local IBANs to millions of other customers in our European markets, we’re excited that all our customers in France will be able to have a fully French N26 account with a French IBAN by the end of the year.”

Launched in 2017 in France, N26 has welcomed more than 2.5 million customers in the market to date, and is continuing to double down on its commitment to offer a locally relevant product for customers in France as it establishes itself as the leading digital bank in the country.

The launch of the French IBAN not only responds to strong customer demand, but also supports N26 being used increasingly as a primary account – an important step as the company moves towards profitability. Previous local IBAN launches in Spain and Italy reliably led to a doubling of customer deposits in the 18-24 months that followed the introduction of local IBANs. N26 additionally saw a significant increase in the number of premium subscribers in these markets following its introduction of local IBANs. More than half of the customers that chose N26 in France over the last two years have already opted for a paid account subscription.

Featured image credit: Jérémie Rosselli, GM N26 France & Benelux. Background image edited from N26.