After five years of ups and especially downs, the online bank Ma French Bank of the La Poste group will probably close its doors following a strategic turnaround linked to too much competition.
Clearly, the world of 100% digital French online banking is in decline. After ING and especially Orange Bank which ceased their activities over the last two years, it is the turn of La Poste to seal the fate of Ma French Bank. La Banque Postale announced via a press release that it had launched a “plan to cease activities», and having initiated a procedure of information and consultation of the unions to this effect.
As one might have suspected, this decision comes for economic reasons. The new director of Banque Postale, Stéphane Dedeyan, wants to clean up the accounts and this will not happen without breaking eggs. In total, 161 employees are threatened with losing their jobs, although the group claims that they “would be offered to continue their career within the group“.
The process of cessation of activities, if it were irrevocably recorded, “would be carried out following a progressive process, which would be long-term and would take between 12 and 18 months“.
Achievable goals, but too much competition
Launched in 2019 with certain ambitions, Ma French Bank proudly announced that it could attract “more than a million customers by 2025», mainly targeting students and young professionals. Objectives which will therefore never be achieved, with the customer portfolio stagnating at around 675,000 customers registered at the end of June 2023.
Competition from neobanks and online banks like N26 and Revolut was therefore not within the reach of Ma French Bank, which probably struggled to find profitability with its very low cost offer: 2 euros per month.
In its press release, the La Poste group announces:
My French Bank has not achieved profitability and has not yet found its economic model. In an extremely competitive market, […] such an orientation no longer appears compatible with the strategic plan of the La Banque Postale Group, which plans to prioritize its investments on the acceleration of its digitalization.
The press release also indicates that current customers could be redirected towards the bank account offers of Banque Postale, but it is possible that the customer portfolio is also sold, at least in part, to another banking organization, as in this case. was the case for Orange Bank with Hello Bank or ING with Boursobank. Further information will surely be communicated in the coming weeks.