Revolut has had half a million users in Germany so far. Not enough for the ambitious goals of the British. Christoph Kuban, Head of Lending Revolut Germany, reveals what the next steps to the financial super app are in this country.
FOCUS Online: Your company promises customers the “financial super app”. What does Revolut mean by this?
Christoph Kuban: We want to offer the customer everything related to finances in one app, like a one-stop shop. For example, the customer does his everyday business via the checking account, borrows a loan, trades in shares or cryptocurrency and more. At the moment I use four different apps myself, for example to manage my construction loan, my checking account, stock trading and crypto management. We want to combine that in one place and offer it from a single source.
The checking account is the bread and butter of every bank and the basis for other products. The industry achieves margins through additional products such as insurance, loans or stock trading. But so far there have only been a few who have had success with combinations. What makes Revolut different?
Christoph Kuban: I think our big advantage is that we don’t transport or transform something from the past into the future. We are developing an operating concept for everyone that is self-explanatory. The focus is on customer satisfaction: the user can see at a glance what options are available in the app. And he can put together the menu items of the app himself. We offer this individualization as added value and see it as a basis for binding customers to us. This approach is then paired with the services that we already offer and will offer in the future in the app.
That sounds very innovative, but Revolut is usually just the second account for users. This slows down your upselling approach. What does Revolut want to do to become users’ main bank account?
Christoph Kuban: In Germany we want to have a German IBAN by the end of this year, or early 2023 at the latest. This will be another big step forward because we can then be 100% the payroll for our target group. This will be an important building block to attract primary customers and become the customers’ central account. I recently experienced how important this is when I filled out a form: “IBAN: DE…” was pre-filled as usual – I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to enter a non-German IBAN.
According to surveys, customers are willing to change their current account, but very few do so. You shy away from the supposed stress of all the changes for automatic debits, new cards and PINs, then you still have to inform your employer. Switching accounts has now become very easy for everyone with the technical possibilities. Nevertheless, the basis of everything we do is the trust of our users. But the German IBAN will be a game changer. We want to grow very strongly, especially in Germany. The social development, our approach and our products enable us to achieve significant growth that is not in the single or double-digit percentage range.
Will Revolut also offer new credit products for this?
Christoph Kuban: The focus is on private customer business with the common installment loan and credit card products. Since Great Britain’s Brexit, Germany has now become the largest credit market in the EU and is therefore very attractive. Loans may be a complicated product to set up, but otherwise it’s simple: the customer needs a certain amount of credit and decides how he wants to use the credit. With a smart integration in the app, granting a loan is quite easy and also quick. Because we already know a customer who is registered with us well and know about his creditworthiness.
Other countries are further ahead in their technological developments than Germany. There, digital products are sometimes more openly accepted by consumers and integrated into everyday life. What are the indications that Germany could catch up in this area?
Christoph Kuban: We see Germany as the market with the greatest potential. In our view, Scandinavia is a role model. There we see how not only finances, but the entire everyday life is handled much more digitally. Germany is now also developing in this direction. The pandemic has changed a lot in the past two years. Before Corona I would not have been able to pay for my rolls at the bakery by card for 2.50 euros, but this is no longer a problem. A lot is happening in the market for financial services and payment solutions in particular, and an incredible amount has already been digitized there. Depending on the product, 30 to 50 percent is now processed online. And there is further potential. The financial services segment is highly competitive. I think that we can show off in the target group of tech-savvy customers with our unique selling propositions.
Since January 2022, Christoph Kuban has been Head of Lending at Revolut in Germany. He works together with Wiktor Stopa as Head of Growth at the Berlin location. Previously, Kuban was Managing Director at Ferratum, where he was also responsible for the area of loans.
Germany is aging rapidly, the customer group aged 50 and over is growing and has a lot of money. This is reflected in the German banking landscape with a still high number of branches – and correspondingly many opportunities for personal advice. Revolut is only available online. How do you intend to reach the older target group?
Christoph Kuban: Of course, we focus on the tech-savvy target group, but ultimately we want to appeal to everyone. It may be difficult to get started for technical reasons, but with our simple user guidance we still offer attractive services for older people. We want to win significant parts of this target group. Until we have a German IBAN, we want to make our attractive products and services even more popular and are expanding our marketing focus for this. We combine and promote banking and lifestyle, for example through the individual design of a card using designs created by the user – and the dashboard in the app can also be designed according to your own ideas.
Revolut also offers business cards and accounts for business customers. What further developments can be expected in this area?
Christoph Kuban: The focus is initially on private customer business, while we develop business customers in parallel. With its immense number of self-employed, small and medium-sized companies, Germany is still very underrepresented in the field of business accounts as far as new banking functions are concerned. This is a very important segment for us. Here, too, the German IBAN will definitely help us. The companies and their customers must of course be able to conduct their business via German accounts. The IBAN will be another important driver to earn the trust of corporate customers.
An exciting aspect about it: With the financial super app, Revolut is building an ecosystem – we have private customers in the app and also integrate retailers on the business side. The user manages his finances and, for example, has the option of booking a trip with the “Stay” function. He benefits from individual discounts, and travel insurance is part of it – in other words, an all-encompassing package. On the other hand, this enables us to address business customers in a targeted manner and to show integration options along the user journey, which means that we can also address these companies differently than in the classic banking business.
Mr. Kuban, thank you very much for the interview.
In 2015, Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko launched Revolut in the UK. The core functions were initially money transfer and currency exchange. Over the years, the features have been greatly expanded and the idea of building a financial super app as the linchpin of all of the user’s financial affairs matured. On its seventh anniversary in July 2022, the company has 20 million private users around the world, including over 500,000 from Germany since it became available in Germany in 2017. 5,000 employees worldwide process 250 million transactions per month.
Revolut credit cards at a glance
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