Regional focus
Right: Simon Boonen, fintech lead at ING.
Left: Kim Van Esbroek, country head Belgium at Aion Bank.
€1.6bn. The bank has subsequently become the first European digital bank to offer mortgages. Knab was spun out from insurance company Aegon in 2012. It predominantly offers business banking services, with a particular focus on the self-employed. Luxembourg-based Sogexia started out in 2010 as a firm offering prepaid cards. It launched its first online payment accounts in 2016 and was granted a Luxembourg payments licence in 2020. That meant it could migrate its customers (previously served by a UK-based banking partner) to its own systems, bypassing the threat of Brexit.
Aion Bank, meanwhile, was founded in Belgium in 2020 as a full-service digital bank and credit institution. It has since moved into Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provision and aims to become one of the top European BaaS players within the next two to three years. “We are a pan-European BaaS provider, which means we offer both financial and non-financial entities a full suite of banking services, alongside access to our banking licence and regulatory and compliance expertise,” says Kim Van Esbroeck, country head Belgium at Aion Bank.
She adds that being headquartered in Belgium brings many advantages to the business. As the capital of the EU, Brussels represents the ideal jumping-off point for a fintech that wants to conquer Europe. “National Bank of Belgium, our regulator, has a good understanding of digital banking, and our clients feel secure that our products are the highest standard and fully compliant,” continues Van Esbroek. “We see a tremendous opportunity in BaaS, with a sizable addressable market in Europe projected to be $300bn plus.”
Collaboration is key
Despite the rise of the challengers, incumbents like ING say the region’s start-ups are more to be welcomed than feared. According to Boonen, the bank routinely collaborates with fintechs and likes to apply partnerships at scale. It currently has more than 110 live partnerships, including 17 investments.
Future Banking /
www.nsbanking.com
“Partnerships are great win-win opportunities,” says Boonen. “We learn about agility, creativity and entrepreneurship, while we offer the fintech a strong brand, a large client base and financial expertise. Also, it will enable us to bring new services to our clients faster.”
Among other projects, ING recently teamed up with Samsung and NXP Semiconductors to pilot a peer-to-peer payment app based on radio waves. The app, called NEAR, enables users to transfer money simply by pointing their smartphone towards the recipient’s.
The bank is also working with fintech Cogo to trial a carbon footprint tracking app. The feature, called Footprint Insight, calculates the CO2
emissions
associated with the person’s spending. Cogo previously took part in ING’s innovation accelerator, as part of the ING Labs Brussels 2022 cohort of start-ups. It’s worth noting that, while ING is an established presence in the Netherlands and Belgium, its business model varies significantly depending on the country. Boonen remarks that in some parts of the world – notably Australia, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – ING is more of a challenger bank itself. “In some markets we offer a fully digital model,” he says. “In others, we only offer wholesale banking services or a combination of retail and wholesale.” He adds that Dutch customers are highly digitised with a ‘do-it-yourself’ culture. That means the Netherlands – along with the rest of the Benelux – is the perfect place to trial new innovations. “Dutch customers’ high expectations regarding digital services and interactions make us do our utmost to meet those expectations,” says Boonen. It’s an ethos that the region’s banking sector has taken on board, especially since the Brexit vote. If Europe is to ‘become a global hub for fintech’ – the stated goal of the European Commission – it will need a supportive regulatory climate, a rich talent pool and an international focus. By any metric, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg have that ambition firmly in their sights. ●
440 New Financial 13
Estimated number of financial firms that have moved their business from the UK to the EU after Brexit.
ING; Aion Bank
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