Number26 issues official statement on closing customer accounts

“There are various reasons why a bank can cancel accounts in the normal course of business including the suspicion of misuse of an account or money laundering?.? An additional factor for cancellation notices in the last few days was highly unusual account usage that was a strong deviation to typical customer behaviour. In particular, this involved a number of customers who used their Number26 accounts almost exclusively for frequent ATM withdrawals. These customers made about 15 ATM withdrawals per month on average, and sometimes up to 30, each month for several consecutive months”, according to Number26, ibsintelligence.com reports.

It adds that the basic Number26 checking account is a free product and the venture incurs a network fee for every cash withdrawal. In Germany that amounts to between EUR ?1,50 – 2,00 per withdrawal, above the European average. “We cover this fee with the assumption that most customers will use their accounts and this benefit, reasonably.? As an extension and alternative to ATM availability we’ve also developed the Cash26 network, which provides customers with access to 6.000 German retailers for cash transactions. Our transaction fees for this service are less than those incurred for equivalent ATM withdrawals.”