N26 has announced that co-founder Valentin Stalf will step down as co-chief executive officer and transition to the digital bank's Supervisory Board following a handover period. N26 is headquartered in Berlin.
The announcement, made on 19 August 2025, confirmed that co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal will continue in his leadership role as a member of N26's Executive Leadership Team and the Management Board. Stalf and Tayenthal had co-led the institution since its founding.
STALF EXITS AMID INVESTOR AND BAFIN PRESSURE
Stalf's departure followed pressure from investors and criticism from BaFin, which had proposed formal warnings to management board members and the appointment of a special monitor over newly identified risk-management weaknesses. N26 broke even in the summer of 2024. In its most recent financial year, the bank reported revenue growth of 40 per cent.
The Supervisory Board role involves exercising oversight over the management team rather than day-to-day operational responsibility — a structure common among German-incorporated companies that operate under a dual-board governance model separating executive management from non-executive supervision.
Stalf said he would remain one of N26's largest shareholders and that the new role would let him devote more time to his family office and other entrepreneurial pursuits.
TAYENTHAL ASSUMES SOLE CHARGE
Tayenthal, who has worked alongside Stalf since N26's inception, will now carry sole chief executive responsibility.
N26 has spent recent years working through a supervisory remediation programme required by BaFin, Germany's financial regulator, which imposed restrictions on the bank's customer growth in 2021 after identifying shortcomings in its anti-money laundering controls. BaFin lifted the growth cap in 2024, but in 2025 the regulator raised fresh concerns about risk management, and investors pushed for leadership changes.