What N26 is, in 2026

N26 is a full German banking licence (BaFin-regulated, Bundesbank-supervised) operating as a mobile-first current account across most of the EEA. It has roughly 8 million customers and is the oldest of the EU neobank class.

In practice: a German-IBAN current account, Spaces (sub-accounts), the N26 Stocks & ETFs brokerage, and Insurance-aggregator integrations. The feature set is narrower than Revolut's — deliberately so.

N26 Stocks & ETFs is a built-in brokerage launched on the Standard / You / Metal account tiers in late 2024 via a Frankfurt-licensed partner (under N26's EU passport rather than a standalone investment-firm licence). The instrument universe is roughly 1,200 ETFs + 1,500 single-name stocks from the major EU and US exchanges (Xetra, Euronext Paris / Amsterdam, NYSE, Nasdaq); fractional purchases from €1, market and limit orders, and savings plans on the same ETF set. Pricing is a flat €0.90 per executed order on the cheaper tier — narrower than Trade Republic's €1 flat but on a substantially smaller instrument universe (Trade Republic covers ~2,500 single-name stocks and ~2,000 ETFs from a much broader exchange list, plus bonds and derivatives N26 doesn't offer). N26 Stocks is the right choice for an existing N26 customer who wants a simple core-holdings brokerage inside the bank app; readers building a serious EU investing stack are still better served by Trade Republic, Scalable Capital, or Interactive Brokers depending on size and instrument needs.

Safety and regulation

N26's licence is a full German credit-institution authorisation — Full German banking licence, BaFin supervised (BaFin, ) — the same class as Deutsche Bank. Deposits up to €100,000 (edb-banken.de, ) are covered by the Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken (EdB) — Germany's statutory DGS.

The ongoing context: BaFin imposed a customer-growth cap in 2021 over AML controls, which was fully lifted in 2024, and a more recent (December 2025) capital-reserve requirement affecting new mortgage lending in the Netherlands. Neither measure affects the deposit guarantee or existing accounts.

Hands-on UX

The app is deliberately quieter than Revolut's. Spaces work well for budgeting; the main card has instant freeze/unfreeze and Apple/Google Pay. Customer support is chat-based, slow-but-functional on the free Standard tier (€0 (N26, )), genuinely fast on Metal (€16.9 (N26, )). Middle tiers — Smart (€4.9 (N26, )) and You (€9.9 (N26, )) — fall in between on both pricing and support responsiveness. Trustpilot reflects the polarised reception: 4.1 count (Trustpilot, ), well below Revolut but reasonable for the deliberate-quiet category.

The weakness: the feature curve flattens early. After Spaces and a couple of virtual cards, there isn't much more to explore. If you want savings rates (Metal carries 2% (n26.com, ) on a savings sub-account, competitive but not best-in-class), crypto, or deep investing, you will outgrow N26 and open something alongside it.

Who N26 is for

Choose N26 if: you want a proper German IBAN, you prize a calm app over feature breadth, you're a resident of a country where N26 offers a local bank product (DE, ES, IT, FR, AT, NL), and you're comfortable with English or German in-app.

Look elsewhere if: you travel heavily (Revolut is better on FX), you want in-app crypto (Revolut or Trade Republic), or you want the highest EUR savings rate (Trade Republic).

Premium plans

Our pick
Standard
€0 /mo
  • Virtual Mastercard
  • Instant transfer notifications
  • Basic Spaces sub-accounts
  • Free SEPA transfers
Smart
€4.9 /mo
  • Physical Mastercard
  • Advanced Spaces (sub-accounts)
  • Partner perks & discounts
  • 3-month phone cover
Go
€9.9 /mo
  • Comprehensive travel insurance
  • Trip cancellation cover
  • Luggage insurance
  • Device & bike insurance
Metal
€16.9 /mo
  • Metal stainless steel card
  • 2.00% p.a. on savings (Spaces)
  • Allianz lounge access (partner)
  • Premium travel insurance

How it stacks up.

Revolut 91
Bank of Lithuania
The most feature-rich neobank globally — combining banking, investing (stocks, crypto, commodities), and travel perks in a single app, with the widest currency support (120+) and 65M+ customers
bunq 87
DNB
Europe's second-largest neobank by deposits (€8B+) with the most granular IBAN-per-sub-account architecture; first new fully licensed bank in the Netherlands in 38 years; strong sustainability angle
Trade Republic 81
BaFin
The lowest-cost investing platform in Europe with a full banking account — €1 flat fee per trade and 2% interest on cash make it the go-to for cost-conscious long-term investors; 8M+ users

Or compare side-by-side

N26 vs Revolut → N26 vs bunq → N26 vs Trade Republic →

N26 in the news.

16 Dec 2025 company
N26 Appoints UBS Executive Mike Dargan as CEO as Co-Founder Tayenthal Steps Down
N26 announced that Mike Dargan, an executive board member at UBS Group AG, would become its new CEO in April 2026, subject to BaFin approval. Co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal stepped down as Co-CEO on 31 December 2025, ending N26's 12-year founder-led era. Dargan is tasked with leading a major compliance overhaul.
 15 Dec 2025 regulatory
BaFin Bans N26 from Issuing New Netherlands Mortgages and Appoints Special Compliance Monitor
BaFin announced serious supervisory measures against N26 on 15 December 2025: a ban on new mortgage lending in the Netherlands, additional capital requirements, and the appointment of a special compliance monitor — the second imposed on N26 since 2021. The sanctions followed a 2024 special audit revealing serious deficiencies.
 18 Mar 2025 regulatory
BaFin Fines N26 €15,000 for Failing to Report Supervisory Board Loan Approval
Germany's financial regulator BaFin issued a €15,000 fine to N26 after the neobank failed to properly notify BaFin that its supervisory board had approved a loan granted to one of the bank's own executives. The fine marked a continued pattern of regulatory friction between N26 and BaFin stretching back to 2021.
Risk warning EU consumer-finance disclosure

The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Since 30 December 2024, EU crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) require authorisation under MiCAR (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114); however, cryptoassets themselves remain outside the scope of deposit-guarantee schemes. Always read the provider's risk warning before investing.