3 digital banks transforming the Spanish financial space

By Megha Bhattacharya

According to a study by SEFO, Spain has seen a five-fold increase in its number of FinTech firms, many of which are the result of ambitious entrepreneurs whose solutions are supporting the digitalisation of Spanish SMEs. Although FinTech firms were expected to compete directly with established banks, the two sectors increasingly collaborate through funding and innovation labs.

The FinTech sector has sustained significant growth in Spain in recent years, measured by both the number of players and the private investment it has attracted.

Neobanks offer banking services to customers directly on their mobile phones or via other digital platforms. This digital-only bank trend has challenged the status quo of the incumbent banks as the former comes with the personalised customer experience and product offerings. Neobanks have been aiming to transform the banking landscape.

IBS Intelligence brings you four innovative digital banks transforming the Spanish financial space-

• Bnext

Spanish mobile-first neobank Bnext offers users with a card and a linked mobile marketplace featuring banking products from select partners. The company also provides an account aggregation feature to manage traditional bank accounts from within the app. Users can connect their existing bank accounts to the platform and manage their finances in one place, at any time.

The challenger bank recently partnered with mobile commerce technology company, Button, in a bid to enable the neobank’s customers to shop and save money with brands including AliExpress, Groupon, and Black Limba. The partnership allows Bnext to enhance customer engagement and offer users an incentive to check their savings on their daily spend and accelerate the bank’s expansion across Spain and Mexico. Bnext, this month, also raised $13 million in a funding round led by its existing investors, including DN Capital, Redalpine, Speedinvest, Founders Future, Enern, Digital Horizons, Kreos Capital and Cometa -formerly Variv.

Launched in 2018, Bnext claims to have around 300,000 active users and more than EUR 100 million in monthly transactions. It operates in the European Union (EU) under an e-money license.

• Imaginbank

Launched in 2016 by Spanish bank Caixabank- imaginbank is a mobile bank, enabling users to carry out basic operations with accounts, cards and bills, make payments with their mobile phone using a digital card, and stay in control of their personal finances, by means of customisable charts and spending targets.

The imaginBank mobile app can be downloaded for free from Google Play (for Android users) or from the App Store (for iOS users). The app features a very simple and intuitive design created specifically for the mobile environment. It allows users to browse and sign up for the full range of services and products, check their bank balance, query transactions and view their overall account activity. Furthermore, the imaginBank app supports fingerprint identification for devices that have fingerprint sensors.

• Openbank

Openbank is an online bank, headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Since its foundation in 1995, it has been a subsidiary of Grupo Santander. The bank offers a 24×7 service to all its customers allowing them to be in permanent contact with the branch, by telephone, email or chat. In addition, it allows them to deposit or withdraw cash, commission-free, at the more than 4,500 ATMs in the Santander network in Spain.

Openbank has developed its new investment platform Open Wealth. With this platform, customers can invest, in real-time from a computer or mobile phone, in the more than twenty-five markets available to them through the professional trading tool. The bank also offers a family plan, Open Young, which has a prepaid card for use by children who can even request payment from their own app.

In addition, Open Mortgage customers can obtain a mortgage with a nominal interest rate of Euribor + 0.99%.

READ MORE: Top 5 valuable FinTechs disrupting the European market