Dutch neobank bunq withdraws US bank charter application and plans to refile

Dutch neobank bunq has withdrawn its application for a US national bank charter, citing a difference of views between its home supervisor and US regulators, and has said it intends to reapply. The withdrawal was reported on 7 February 2024.

The Amsterdam-based digital bank applied for the charter in April 2023 and had spent 301 days in the application queue of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) before pulling out.

A bunq spokesperson described the withdrawal as a procedural move. The spokesperson said a "difference of views" had emerged during the application process between the supervisory expectations of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch banking regulator, and those of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the OCC. The bank would reapply soon and was "fully committed to resolving all the differences", the spokesperson said.

REGULATORS COMMENT

DNB said it could not comment on individual institutions. "In general we can say that it is good supervisory practice to exchange information between supervisors when an institution from one country (the home country) is or will be active in another country (the host country)," a DNB spokesperson said, adding that the Dutch regulator has a memorandum of understanding with the OCC for such purposes. The OCC and the FDIC declined to comment on the application.

Chief executive Ali Niknam said in August 2023 that the bank's conversations with US regulators were "tough but fair", adding that US agencies had in the past been concerned about the long-term feasibility of some of bunq's peers. "That's one of the concerns that won't exist with Bunq because we are profitable," he said at the time.

UK LICENCE PLANS

bunq, which has more than 11 million users in Europe and over EUR 7 billion in deposits, announced in January 2024 that it had applied for a UK electronic money institution (EMI) licence as part of its international expansion. UK challenger Monzo withdrew its application for a US banking licence in 2021 after receiving an indication that the OCC was unlikely to approve it.