Nickel (France)

0 standards supported

Key details

Users: 4M customers

Overview

Nickel (France) is French neobank distributed via tobacco shops bureaux de tabac + BNP Paribas subsidiary post-Apr 2017 ~€200M acquisition + ~4M+ customers across France + Spain + Belgium + Germany + Portugal + first neobank account opened in <5 min at French bureaux de tabac for €20/year ^{1, France report}.

History

Feb 2014 — Compte Nickel founded by Hugues Le Bret + Ryad Boulanouar in France as French neobank distributed via tobacco shops bureaux de tabac (revolutionary French alternative to traditional banking).

Apr 14 2017 — BNP Paribas acquires Compte Nickel for ~€200M distinctive French banking-fintech acquisition.

2014 — Nickel mobile banking app launch + bureaux de tabac account opening in <5 min.

2020-2024 — Nickel European expansion to Spain + Belgium + Germany + Portugal.

Ownership & operator

Operating entity: Nickel (Compte Nickel BNP Paribas subsidiary post-2017 acquisition; French neobank).

Major shareholders: BNP Paribas (ENXTPA: BNP; French global banking group) fully owned post-Apr 14 2017 acquisition.

Regulators: ACPR France + ECB + national regulators across 5 countries.

Technical integration

Nickel mobile app (iOS + Android; ~4M+ customers across France + Spain + Belgium + Germany + Portugal) + nickel.eu online + Nickel prepaid Mastercard + French bureaux de tabac agent network (~6,000+ tobacco shops); SEPA + SEPA Instant + EPC-QR + Wero (post-EPI launch).

Implementations & partners

BNP Paribas parent: BNP Paribas Mes Comptes (BNP Paribas S.A.; ENXTPA: BNP; French global banking group; 65+ countries + 198,000+ employees + Nickel parent post-Apr 14 2017 ~€200M acquisition).

Major French neobank competitors: BoursoBank (Boursorama) (Boursorama French digital bank subsidiary of Société Générale; 8.4M customers Jul 2025) + Hello bank! (France) (Hello bank! BNP Paribas digital bank brand) + Ma French Bank (Ma French Bank La Banque Postale digital bank; closed 2024 + customers migrated to La Banque Postale) + Lydia / Sumeria (Lydia French P2P mobile wallet + neobank) + Monabanq (Monabanq French neobank by Crédit Mutuel) + Fortuneo (Fortuneo French online brokerage + bank by Crédit Mutuel) + Orange Bank (Orange Bank French neobank by Orange + BNP Paribas acquired 2024) + Revolut (Revolut UK global; France operations + ~5M+ French users + Sep 2024 EU bank license via Lithuania).

Regulators: ACPR France + ECB + national regulators across 5 countries.

Status

Active, French neobank distributed via tobacco shops bureaux de tabac + BNP Paribas subsidiary post-Apr 14 2017 ~€200M acquisition + ~4M+ customers across France + Spain + Belgium + Germany + Portugal + first neobank account opened in <5 min at French bureaux de tabac for €20/year ^{1, 2}.

Sources

1 Nickel — official
2 Compte Nickel — Wikipedia
^{France report} In-corpus: reports/countries/FR-france.md

Source

Biography extracted from nickel.md. See matrix.md for standards-support matrix if present.