As noted by D-Rating as a conclusion of its first SME banking rating campaign, the branch networks still have to improve their performance in the digital field. Three pure players or former ones are placed in the 2021 Top5: Anytime (now a subsidiary of Orange Bank), Qonto end Shine (bought by Société Générale), alongside Blank (Crédit Agricole) and Boursorama (Société Générale)[1].
In addition to interest demonstrated by investors for this segment, and that is reflected for example by the record fundraising announced these last days by Qonto, D-Rating noted the agility of the SME bankers to extend their offer through partnerships with third parties, for services that they do not operate directly, this combination being fully transparent to the the end customer for the most successful ones.
The (mega) fund raising operations recently closed by Spendesk or Checkout.com attest that investors seem to bet on a strong growth of this operating scheme. Will it have a knock-on effect on retail banking and the development of beyond banking on the individual market?
Partnerships through which neo-banks extend their offerings and features:
Qonto
Legalstart + Qonto : assistance in the creation of a company by experts, from the choice of thelegal form to the drafting of the statutes.
Agicap + Qonto : Automated cash management thanks to the tool proposed by Agicap andintegrated to Qonto. The tool allows real time and forecasted cash flow monitoring andautomatic categorization of transactions.
Edebex + Qonto : factoring offer with an annual subscription offered to Qonto customers thefirst year.
Zettle + Qonto : a Paypal including a payment terminal and a cash register software.
Yomoni + Qonto : legal entity securities account offer open to all Qonto customers with aminimum initial deposit of 50,000 euros.
CashBee et My Money Bank + Qonto : online term account offer, for a low-risk cashinvestment with no withdrawal penalties.
Anytime
Easyblue + Anytime : digital insurance offer covering the company’s risks (equipment, cyber-attack risk, professional premises and civil liability).
Mansa + Anytime : offer of financing for the self-employed whether for a cash flow need or aninvestment, a credit offered 100% online and within 48 hours for a maximum amount of 10 000euros.
Dimpl + Anytime : insurance for unpaid invoices.
Edebex + Anytime : factoring offer similar to the partnership established with Qonto.
Smile&Pay et SumUp + Anytime: mobile payment terminals and receipt payment terminals’proposal.
Alma + Anytime : solution that can be integrated into the client’s e-commerce site to offerframented payment.
Shine
Smile&Pay et SumUp + Shine: mobile payment terminals and receipt payment terminals’proposal.
Edebex + Shine: factoring offer similar to the partnership established with Qonto and Anytime.
Assurup + Shine : professional insurance offer.
Shopify + Shine : e-shop creation.
Blank
Cash in Time + Blank : factoring solution with a response in less than 24 hours.
LegalPlace + Blank : assistance to the establishment of a microenterprise.
For its first SME Banking’s rating campaign, D-Rating has restricted the study’s field to French ones, as it did in 2017 for the retail bank (18 brands has been studied) in order to test its methodology. But the approach will be extended to other European markets as of 2022.
[1] Placed by alphabetical order
