The neobank popularity contest has one clear winner. But there’s a catch 🧐; Some NFTs could be classified as securities 😳; Monzo to IPO soon? 👀

FinTech is Eating the World, 27 February

Hey Everyone,

Happy Monday & greetings from Barcelona🇪🇸! Today’s issue is just unbelievable. Literally! 🤯 You’ll see this yourself as today we’re looking at the neobank popularity contest that has one clear winner (what’s the catch here + unpacking neobanking strategies that work + what everyone’s missing), NFTs that soon could be classified as securities (why this is a big one?), and Monzo’s upcoming IPO (why it makes sense & could be big). Let’s jump straight into the mesmerizing stuff 🌶

The neobank popularity contest has one clear winner. But there’s a catch 🧐

A step back 👀 Neobanks have been promising easier access to money and innovative features for over a decade now. Yet, their growth has been accompanied by expanding pains, as legacy banks have also stepped up their digital offerings. This has effectively resulted in a highly competitive market for customer share. Which is good!

The key questions now though are which digital banking apps have seen the most growth in recent years and whether legacy banks are catching up with neobanks.

Let’s take a look.

The data 📊 App Radar recently analyzed the number of downloads for Europe's top neobanks and legacy bank apps from 2021 to the end of 2022, using data from the Google Play Store.

As correctly pointed out by Sifted, which cited App Radar’s data, one must note that the download data does not provide the full picture of a challenger bank’s performance. Nevertheless, it does offer insight into which companies are reaching the most customers.

As you can easily see, Revolut is a very obvious winner, and it’s clearly Europe’s most popular digital banking app. Since launching in 2015, it’s raked in 26 million app downloads, according to App Radar. In fact, Revolut has more downloads than all of the other challenger banking apps. Combined 🤯

But there’s a catch… Let’s look at the things that many miss, unpack the digital banking strategies that work (i.e. Monzo, Starling, and JPMorgan), and see what legacy banks can do in 2023 to step up their game.