French Banking Giant Buys 95 Per Cent Stake In Digital Bank

Robbie Lawther

7 April 2017

, a French start-up digital bank.

The deal is said to be worth around €200 million ($213 million). The French banking giant has shown an interest in investing into the burgeoning sector of financial technology, after it last month inked a deal with Silicon Valley-based tech accelerator scheme Plug and Play to develop future fintech partners.

Compte-Nickel has opened more than 540,000 accounts over the past three years with a new account being opened in France every 30 seconds, BNP Paribas said in a statement.

BNP Paribas says a key advantage of using the bank is the 100 per cent digital processing and real-time treatment of payment transactions.

Compte-Nickel will join the BNP Paribas Group’s multi-channel setup designed to modernise banking in France. BNP Paribas has set Compte-Nickel a target of 2 million accounts by 2020.

BNP Paribas already owns its subsidiary Hello Bank!, a digital direct bank that launched in early 2014. That bank operates in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Austria.

The new deal saw BNP Paribas sign a memorandum of understanding with Financière des Paiements Électroniques, which owns Compte-Nickel. The agreements are subject to approval from regulatory authorities.

“By making this investment, BNP Paribas is further extending its partnership range, both in terms of service and customer," said Theirry Laborde, deputy chief operating officer at BNP Paribas group. “The Compte-Nickel offering will remain distinct from, and complementary to, the products and services provided by the BNP Paribas branch network and Hello bank!

“Like all the start-ups with which we have already long-term cooperation, Compte-Nickel will remain independent from the rest of the group. Meanwhile, we will be making every effort to help Compte-Nickel improve the customer experience and foster its growth, while remaining true to its concept.”