We might have thought they were trivialized by the proliferation of digital offers from network banks or devalued by the withdrawal from the market of ING, then Orange Bank. Far from it: online banks remain very present in the French landscape and some are even seeing their strategy relaunched with reinforced ambition.
Boursorama, renamed BoursoBank since October 2, number one in this market with five million customers, was entrusted by its parent company, Société Générale, with a mission as part of the group’s new strategic plan: to conquer three million additional customers by 2026.
This trajectory calls into question its status as a profitable subsidiary (47 million euros profit in the second quarter, the first in its history): the group is counting on 150 million euros in losses in three years, the price to pay to finance his new ambition. And generate, by 2026, annual profits expected at 300 million euros.
Its competitor BforBank, owned by Crédit Agricole, is also going on the offensive again: it is targeting two million customers in France and one million more abroad for the year 2025, to support the European development of the mutual group, first in four countries (Germany, Spain, Italy and Portugal). A change in dimension since the brand has never exceeded 240,000 customers since its creation in 2009. All with a new logo, a stylized blue frog, supposed to symbolize “rebound” and “liveliness”, and discounted price offers.
A new impetus
These two almost simultaneous strategic shifts are taking place in a banking landscape which has evolved profoundly over the last two years with the rise in interest rates, the slowdown in real estate lending – a traditional tool for winning new customers for large networks – and, of course, inflation, which pushes some customers to review their spending.
“People are revisiting all the services offered to them, and banking is one of them. Some realize that they are paying for a local service that they may no longer have full use for, even though their needs are more suited to a 100% remote model., explains Bertrand Cizeau, general manager of Hello Bank!, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, which is preparing to take over part of Orange Bank’s 1.5 million customers. Benoît Grisoni, his counterpart at BoursoBank, confirms: “Our customers are people who compare. »
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