Imagine a bank that's accessible to everyone, can open accounts in mere five minutes, and caters to a diverse customer base. Such a bank exists, and it's known as Nickel. On this episode of Connector, we engage in a riveting conversation with Nickel's CEO, Emmanuel. He peels back the curtain on Nickel's mission of financial inclusivity, its unique blend of digital and physical banking services, and its partnership with one of the world's largest banking groups.
From the humble beginnings to the current expansion across Europe, Nickell tells a story of innovation and inclusivity. Emmanuel sheds light on how the bank utilizes data to drive growth, enhance customer experience, and ensure security. He offers insights into how they navigate the balance between the digital and physical world of banking. This episode promises a fascinating exploration into the future of banking, fintech, and the rapidly evolving landscape of financial services. Tune in and discover how Nickel is making waves in the banking industry.
Thank you for tuning into our podcast about global trends in the FinTech industry.
Check out our podcast channel.
Learn more about The Connector.
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Cheers
Koen Vanderhoydonk
koen.vanderhoydonk@jointheconnector.com
#FinTech #RegTech #Scaleup #WealthTech
Imagine a bank that's accessible to everyone, can open accounts in mere five minutes, and caters to a diverse customer base. Such a bank exists, and it's known as Nickel. On this episode of Connector, we engage in a riveting conversation with Nickel's CEO, Emmanuel. He peels back the curtain on Nickel's mission of financial inclusivity, its unique blend of digital and physical banking services, and its partnership with one of the world's largest banking groups.
From the humble beginnings to the current expansion across Europe, Nickell tells a story of innovation and inclusivity. Emmanuel sheds light on how the bank utilizes data to drive growth, enhance customer experience, and ensure security. He offers insights into how they navigate the balance between the digital and physical world of banking. This episode promises a fascinating exploration into the future of banking, fintech, and the rapidly evolving landscape of financial services. Tune in and discover how Nickel is making waves in the banking industry.
Thank you for tuning into our podcast about global trends in the FinTech industry.
Check out our podcast channel.
Learn more about The Connector.
Follow us on LinkedIn.
Cheers
Koen Vanderhoydonk
koen.vanderhoydonk@jointheconnector.com
#FinTech #RegTech #Scaleup #WealthTech
Welcome to the Connector podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting FinTechs, banks and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Koen van der Hoijdon as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Welcome to another podcast from the Connector and Belgium FinTech. Today I have with me Emmanuel, and Emmanuel has started a new bank in Belgium Niquel. Please explain us.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:Yeah, indeed, thank you. So I'm Emmanuel. I'm the CEO of Niquel here in Belgium. So Niquel is a new player in Belgium. We are a payment institution subsidiary of the BNP Paribas Group, and we offer payment accounts accessible to everyone. The account can be opened in five minutes in a press shop or a corner shop, and it's really yeah, it's quite new here in Belgium, of course, but we exist in 10 years now, in France, where we started, and all this for only 20 euros a year. You get an international debit mastercard, a nominative Belgian I-band and tools for managing your transaction in real time, like a real bank. I would say. So yeah, niquel is now one of the biggest payment institutions in Europe, with over 3.5 million customers.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Wow impressive.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:Yeah, thank you, and we are expanding the business across Europe. So we started in Spain in 2021. Last year we have launched Belgium in Portugal, and we just started in Germany this year.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Wow, so that's literally a very fast expansion plan.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:Yeah indeed, Nice, nice, nice. We have strong ambitions here indeed.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:A good, strong ambition is always good, but I think you guys are unique in the DNA that you have, because with you guys it's a lot about inclusive banking. You mentioned like you open up your account in five minutes, but can you explain a little bit more? What does that mean?
Emmanuel LEGRAS:Yeah, indeed, from the very beginning, we have built a product on very strong values that lead to a differentiating value proposition. One of our core values is universality, so we offer the same service to everyone. We don't segment our customers according to income or assets and we are accessible to everyone definitely everyone. So, for instance, for foreigners, we are accepting over 190 passports, so you can come to Belgium and with your passport, you can directly open your account in five minutes with Nickel, and it's directly operational as well. And we have, yeah, of course, like several institutions, we have also innovated in several features and products, so we have, for instance, notches for visual impaired. We also have on our cards. Of course, we have also designed our project for non-binary and transgender people, so accessibility and universality are definitely part of our DNA.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:I mean it's impressive what you just said, but I can imagine it's also complex that you have this in your DNA, because how would you actually ensure that whatever product you bring, it's literally tailor-made towards the end customer, if you actually serve them all?
Emmanuel LEGRAS:Yeah, you're perfectly right. Indeed, Our customer base is now quite broad, let's say very large. So if financial inclusion is part of our DNA, like we said, one third of our customer base are people facing many difficulties and issues with their financial situation and the banks. But it's right for one third of our customers. That means that two thirds of our customers are people who are looking for, let's say, a cheaper offer with more transparency and maybe using Nickel as a secondary account for travel or online shopping, for instance. That means we have to innovate in order to meet all their needs. So it's really important and behind the appearance of a very simple service, there is an enormous amount of technology behind to meet the needs of all our customers and ensure the smoothest possible experience. So, in addition to opening an account in five minutes while performing all the customer identification, so the KYC- you have to because it's still a bank Exactly.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:Nickel innovates every day to benefit of its customers. So, for instance, we were the first to launch real-time transaction in the banking sector in 2014. And it was really a big innovation at the time, because traditional banks are accumulating a lot of technology et cetera, and so it's becoming very difficult for them to be able to bring this innovation, but Nickel succeeded to do this. We also have premium offers embedded in the in-app services and so on, so there is something for everyone at Nickel, and all customer feedback is to lead and taken into account in order to enrich our offer.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Would you consider yourself as a NEO bank and not ask you why? I'm asking that question? Because I think you're a fully digital bank.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:but then with a twist, yeah, exactly, we are exactly at the middle of the NEO bank, like we say, so purely pure digital banks and the traditional banks. So we are exactly at the middle because we offer the best of the digital services in terms of payment services, but we combine this with a strong distribution and physical distribution network.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:So, that's the twist, exactly. So, yeah, our distribution network is definitely the key to our success. Now, who would have thought, when our funders launched Nickel 10 years ago, that offering the possibility to open an account directly in a press shop would meet such a great success, let's say so.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:Marketing studies at the time predicted failure, but in fact it's with more than 3 million customers now. So we consider that, faced with disembodied banks, banking institutions and digital banks, local shops represent proximity, accessibility and real life, and they can provide the additional confidence our customers need. So it's important for us. And they also provide a unique and human let's say contact point. They allow customers to easily manage their account, their cash, with free withdrawals, with cash deposit and so on. And, of course, for these distributors, nickel represent a new revenue stream for them because they get commissions for all transactions they perform for the customers. So let's say it's a win-win partnership.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Okay, no interesting Now. Earlier you said that you're part of the BNP Paribas group. They're probably the biggest European banking group, so how does that actually have an impact on your business model?
Emmanuel LEGRAS:Indeed, we were bought in 2017 by a group and now we are a complete subsidiary of the group, and I would say that it's quite unique for a FinTech company to be a subsidiary of one of the world's largest banking groups. Given Nickel's rapid popular success, let's say seven years ago, our founders felt the need to rely on experts to meet all the regulatory sorry requirements of the banking world. So, if we keep our autonomy in terms of strategy and business development, ben Pepe Paiber provides us real expertise in terms of compliance, risk management, legal regulatory controls, reporting. So this expertise allows us to secure our development, and especially now in Europe, and so, in the end, to secure our customers' funds and accounts.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Well, it makes sense. Sounds again like a win-win situation, exactly Talking about. I mean, you're a bank, so a lot of the banks today they claim data is gold. So how do you guys deal with data?
Emmanuel LEGRAS:Yeah, as many institutions now, of course, data is important for Nickel, so we are using data on a daily basis, like everyone, and we have organized our team accordingly. But to keep it simple, we can divide the use of data at Nickel in three areas. The first one could be data for business. Data helps us to refer the best prospect experience as possible during the subscriptions process, to target and generate as well high quality leads and to perform with the implementation of digital branding campaigns, for instance.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:So, in order to grow the business. The second area could be data for customer experience. Data at Nickel is also, and mainly, used for enhancing the customer experience, increasing and analyzing the use of service in order to offer the best services that can answer our customer's needs. For instance, following a certain level of use, we can advise customers to go for another offer, so, for instance, for a premium offer only using data in order for them to save money, for instance. And it could seem not really logical in terms of business, but we just want to make a customer experience at our core value, so it's really important for us Fits your DNA Exactly.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:And the third area. The last one could be data for security and regulation. Finally, data at NICL is also used to secure the business and our customers and to meet all the regulatory requirements, and, thanks to the use of data, we create specific algorithms to fight money laundering financing terrorism, of course or to generate automated regulatory reports, for instance for the regulator.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Makes sense. What a journey. And I almost don't dare to ask my last question, because you have done so many innovation in the market. But is there anything else we can expect going forward? What's in shop?
Emmanuel LEGRAS:Yeah, of course we are still. We are always wondering what we can do next for the business and for customers. So here in Belgium we are just at the beginning of the story. Of course, we just launched a year ago and of course, growing our customer base is important, but the top priority so far is to implement our distribution network. Both are linked, obviously, but it's important to very quickly offer the most extensive network so that each prospect and each customer finds a NICL point at every corner. So our ambition is to reach 1,300 point of sale in five years and then to acquire 300,000 customers.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:And in terms of services, we will focus on payment services for a while and continue to innovate to offer the best experience as possible. But I think in Belgium we will be the first country where NICL will innovate with partners in order to offer local services. So, for instance, we will implement in-app payconic for our customers and we are working and we are thinking to partner with several Belgian actors as well. So normally we should be the first country at NICL to offer a local specific service. And after having, after democratizing, the access to a payment account, we aim now to democratize access to other financial services, such as credits, savings insurance, for instance, but always in line with our core value and our DNA, so with universality whatever you want to say, et cetera.
Emmanuel LEGRAS:It's not always easy, especially when you are talking about credits. For instance, how could you meet universality with credit? So we have to innovate in this and to find a way to offer this service to our customers. So we are doing this in a pilot way by partnering with players who have the expertise, and we move forward, but step by step.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Step by step, and I think you can help the audience maybe to, or maybe help yourself to get more audience to become a member or customer. So how would they do that?
Emmanuel LEGRAS:So to become a NICL customer, it's very simple. You can just subscribe online on your smartphone directly. If you don't have a smartphone or a laptop, you can go directly in a press shop and use our totem. So it's a tablet, let's say, where you can open your account in five minutes. Then you go directly to the desk of the press shop owner, you pay 20 euros and you can get your card directly operational.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:It sounds like a charm. Emmanuel, thank you very much for having you in this podcast and we look forward to have you also at the DFS in December. Thank you so much. Thank you also to the audience and please stay tuned. More news from the FinTech world. Thank you very much. Thank you.
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