bunq profit jumps 65% to €85.3m as it files for US broker-dealer licence

Dutch neobank bunq said its 2024 profit rose 65% year-on-year to €85.3m ($97.2m), and used the update to confirm it has filed for a broker-dealer registration in the United States. The filing is the opening move in a renewed attempt to win a full US banking licence, after an earlier push stalled.

The profit jump came mostly from interest income, which climbed 55%, with fee income up 35%. Founder and chief executive Ali Niknam told reporters the bank's lean cost structure, built on in-house systems rather than outsourced infrastructure, let it grow profit while still paying competitive interest rates to Dutch and European savers.

A second run at the US

bunq's US ambitions are not new. The bank filed for a federal bank charter in April 2023. It withdrew that application roughly a year later, citing friction between its Dutch regulator and US authorities. The broker-dealer registration is a narrower, faster route back into the market. Niknam said bunq intends to refile for a full banking licence later in 2025, though he gave no firm date.

A broker-dealer authorisation alone would let bunq offer most of its products to US customers, with one notable gap: it could not take savings deposits there. Niknam framed the move around bunq's core customer base, which the bank describes as "digital nomads" who live and work across borders rather than in one country.

"Because we are so lean and mean... we have been able to not only increase our profits, but also offer very good interest rates," Niknam said.

He added that the broker-dealer status would let bunq serve customers with an international footprint, which he called the bank's target demographic, with most of its product range.

Why the numbers matter beyond the Netherlands

bunq is one of a small group of European neobanks that has turned the high interest-rate cycle of the past few years into durable profit rather than just reduced losses. It first reported a profitable year in 2022, and the 2024 figures mark a second consecutive year in the black, a track record that rivals such as N26 and Monzo have taken longer to match.

Like those peers, bunq has leaned on interest earned from customer deposits parked at central banks. That tailwind is now fading: the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve have all been cutting rates as inflation has eased. Niknam said he is not worried about the effect on interest income, pointing to paid subscription tiers and newer product lines, including a recently launched stock-trading feature, as a more diversified source of revenue going forward.

He also drew a contrast with the UK market, where bunq operated before Brexit forced it to exit in 2020. Continental Europe, he said, went through a long stretch of negative interest rates that the UK did not, which meant bunq's costs rose alongside its deposit base because it had to pay to hold the money customers put in. bunq has since applied for an Electronic Money Institution licence to re-enter the UK.

Crowded competition ahead

Entering the US puts bunq up against large consumer lenders such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup, plus fintech rivals like Chime and Robinhood. None of them shares bunq's pitch to a mobile, cross-border customer, but each already has a far bigger balance sheet and customer base in the country.

bunq built its business without the large venture war chests typical of its neobank peers. Niknam put in close to €100m of his own money during the company's early years. Only in 2021 did it take its first outside round, a €193m Series A led by Pollen Street Capital that valued the bank at €1.65bn. That history may explain why Niknam calls the firm "lean" rather than pointing to fresh capital as the driver behind its US push.

What happens next depends on US regulators. bunq's prior charter attempt fell apart over the kind of cross-border coordination it will need again this time, between its home supervisor in the Netherlands and whichever federal or state authority ends up reviewing its banking application.