N26
Verified“EU-licensed bank, EU-governed — funded by global money, run on a US cloud.”
- Customers
- ~4.8M
- Markets
- 24
- Founded
- 2013
- Ownership
- Private
64 = midpoint of Control 74 & Data 54
Sovereignty Quadrant
Control ↑ who owns & governs the company · Data → where your data lives. Every dot is a company — click to open it.
Every number below traces to 15 sourced facts across 12 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 3 open questions hold confidence at 76% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
92
Incorporated and headquartered in Berlin as N26 SE and N26 Bank SE (both European Company / Societas Europaea), with a full German banking license under BaFin. EU law reaches it directly and is actively enforced — BaFin imposed a growth cap, levied a multi-million-euro fine and pushed management/governance changes. About as EU-enforceable as a bank gets.
Why 92? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Operating banking entity is a German/EU company supervised by BaFin
N26 Imprint (official) · as of 2026-06-12
Registered as European Company (SE) at Amtsgericht Charlottenburg
N26 Imprint (official) · as of 2026-06-12
Holds a full German banking license granted by BaFin
N26 Press / Wikipedia · as of 2024-06
EU enforceability demonstrated by regulator actions
N26 / BaFin coverage · as of 2024-05-09
Control & Ownership
55
Privately held, not listed. Founders Stalf and Tayenthal hold ~20% combined and historically wielded special veto voting rights (now being relinquished in negotiations with investors). The economic majority sits with non-EU venture capital — Tencent (China), GIC (Singapore), Insight Partners / Valar Ventures / Coatue / Third Point (US) — alongside some EU holders. EU voting influence exists via founders and BaFin fit-and-proper control, but the money is global, not European.
Why 55? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Co-founders hold a minority combined stake
N26 Press Release · as of 2025-08-19
Major investors are predominantly non-EU
VentureBeat / Tracxn · as of 2021-10
Founders' special veto voting rights being given up in investor deal
Eulerpool / Handelsblatt coverage · as of 2025-08
Privately held; last valuation in a Series E
Sacra / Wikipedia · as of 2021-10
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
30
N26 was the first regulated European bank built fully in the cloud and runs its core systems on AWS, a US hyperscaler subject to the US CLOUD Act. EU data residency is plausible (German bank, EU customers) but is NOT publicly confirmed — N26 does not disclose its AWS region, and the privacy-policy PDFs are access-restricted. Even if data sits in an EU AWS region, the provider is US-controlled, capping infrastructure sovereignty.
Why 30? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Core banking infrastructure runs on AWS
N26 Tech Blog (official) · as of 2026-06-12
Specific AWS region / EU data residency not publicly disclosed
Search of N26 sources (not found) · as of 2026-06-12
Operations & People
90
Unambiguously EU-centered operations: headquartered in Berlin, ~1,500-1,600 employees of 90+ nationalities, serving 24 European markets, reporting in euros. Leadership is European/EU-resident — incoming CEO Mike Dargan (ex-UBS) and a Supervisory Board chaired by former Bundesbank board member Andreas Dombret. Day-to-day, this is a German bank run from Germany.
Why 90? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany
N26 Imprint (official) · as of 2026-06-12
Incoming CEO is EU-based banking executive
N26 Press Release · as of 2026
Operates across European markets, EUR reporting
N26 Press Release · as of 2024-11
Aligned to the EU Commission’s official Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL, Jun 2026) →
What we don’t know
3 open questions — they lower confidence, never the score
- ?
Which AWS region(s) host N26 customer data, and is there a contractual EU data-residency / sovereignty guarantee?
Directly determines the infra score — EU-region hosting would be modestly better than the assumed US-cloud exposure, but CLOUD Act risk persists either way.
- ?
Exact post-restructuring cap table: what share of economic ownership and voting power sits with EU vs non-EU investors after founders relinquish special voting rights?
Could move the ownership score up or down by 10-15 points depending on how concentrated non-EU (US/China/Singapore) economic control becomes.
- ?
Whether N26 has crossed (or will cross) the threshold for direct ECB supervision as a significant institution.
Would strengthen the legal/jurisdiction picture (EU-level enforceability) but does not change that it is already fully EU-regulated.
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
The SEAL framework targets cloud/infrastructure providers; this is an analogous sovereignty mapping for a regulated EU bank, not a certification.
Strategic
EU-headquartered and EU-governed, but strategic direction shaped by largely non-EU venture investors and guaranteed-return disputes.
Legal & jurisdictional
N26 SE / N26 Bank SE incorporated in Germany under a full BaFin banking license; EU/German law applies and is actively enforced.
Data & AI
Core systems run on AWS (US hyperscaler) with CLOUD Act exposure; specific EU region / data-residency guarantees not publicly confirmed.
Operational
Berlin HQ, EU-resident leadership, ~1,500 staff, EUR reporting, 24 European markets.
Supply chain
Heavy reliance on US cloud and likely US-origin tooling; some EU partners, but key infra vendor is American.
Technological
Cloud-native bank built in-house, a genuine EU engineering asset — but the underlying platform is a US hyperscaler.
Security & compliance
BaFin-regulated with strong formal obligations, but repeated regulator findings on AML/risk controls (fine + growth cap + 2025 restrictions).
Environmental sustainability
No verified primary data on energy/carbon or data-center sustainability commitments reviewed.
EU alternatives
Amsterdam-based EU neobank with its own full banking license; strong EU peer, though also reliant on major cloud infrastructure.
Established EU-owned, EU-operated retail banks for users prioritizing domestic ownership over neobank UX.
Paris-based EU fintech (business banking) with EU licensing; strong European alternative, with VC funding that includes non-EU investors.
How the method works
Methodology v2 (provisional): the score is the midpoint of two axes — Control (who owns and governs the company) and Data (where your data lives and who can reach it). Each axis is scored only on verified evidence; unknowns reduce confidence, never the score. Every input below is sourced; the weights and judgments are open to challenge.
Spotted an error? Every claim is sourced — challenge it and we correct the record.
- 2026-06-12 — Initial golden profile, authored from primary sources (human + AI review).
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Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology