Bunq doubled user deposits last year to over €400m in quest for growth

via AltFi

In what seems to be a bumper week for digital banks Bunq, the Dutch app-only bank, revealed it doubled its total customer deposits to over €433m in 2019.

The bank also announced it helped customers plant over 70,000 trees in three months following the launch of its Green Card that plants a tree for every €100 spent.

Bunq saw a huge amount of customer spending in the last few weeks alone, less than a month after AltFi reported its milestone of 40,000 trees planted.

The average deposit made by Bunq’s Premium users was €2,322—almost 10 times higher than its digital bank competitors according to Sifted.

It was also today reported by Bunq that 62 per cent of its Premium customers use Bunq as their primary account.

Recently the digital bank announced a collaboration with automation group Zapier allowing its users to integrate Bunq with over 1,500 apps such as Quickbooks, Xero, Gmail, Slack and MailChimp, creating a more streamlined service for Bunq Business users.

Bunq is quickly becoming a significant rival to challenger banks like N26, although in an interview with AltFi in September 2019 Ali Niknam, CEO and founder of Bunq, said: “I don’t see them (neo-banks) as rivals, I see them as peers.” 

Niknam, who founded TransIP, the third biggest domain name and web hosting provider in the world, added: “To me, we are on the forefront of a new financial sector with new players, new offerings that better match the people’s wants and needs.”

“In my view, the fact there are so many rivals in the UK is an indication that people are more open and more ready for this change towards the future. If you ask me, there are too many traditional banks, rather than neo-banks.”

As of September 2019, Bunq has launched in all EU countries and, despite launching in non-Euro currency countries, including the UK, it remains a Euro-only bank.