A way out for Orange Bank customers: the banking subsidiary of the operator Orange is ceasing its banking activity in France and today announces that it has reached an agreement with BNP Paribas aimed at allowing its customers to transfer their accounts to its partner.
From today, Orange Bank customers will be contacted by their bank’s services who will offer them the Hello Prime offer, a promotional offer aimed at encouraging them to switch to Hello! Bank, subsidiary of BNP Paribas.
These proposals will be sent to customers by mail until the end of May and will allow them to benefit from certain advantages when opening an account with Hello Bank, which are detailed in the press release: the subsidiary of BNP Paribas thus promises a tripling of cashback on the Hello Extra program as well as a rate of 3.5% for 12 months for its Hello+ booklet for Orange Bank customers.
Accounts closed at the end of 2024
The proposals will be made until May, specifies an Orange Bank spokesperson, after which customers who have not yet switched to the partner will see their accounts closed at the end of 2024.
This agreement will also allow Orange Bank to offer fallback solutions for its Spanish users, who will in turn be referred to the services of another BNP Paribas subsidiary, Cetelem.
This partnership offer does not provide for the takeover of Orange Bank’s infrastructure and employees, in accordance with what was announced at the opening of negotiations in June 2023.
An agreement reached for the reclassification of employees
Orange Bank is therefore providing an exit door for its customers here, but the company recently announced that it had obtained an agreement with its unions concerning the implementation of a job protection plan for the firm’s 650 French employees.
The company has agreed to advance a sum of 140 million euros to cover compensation for employees wishing to leave the structure or benefit from internal mobility.
According to BFMTV, the plan negotiated with the unions provides for severance pay higher than that provided for in the collective agreement for those who opt to leave, or housing and moving assistance for those who choose reclassification within the group.
Big losses
But as union officials point out, the majority of employees would rather consider leaving, most of them coming from the banking sector and not seeing prospects in a telecoms group.
Orange’s new management, headed by Christel Heydemann, has been working since 2022 to refocus the group on its historic activity in telecommunications, going against the diversification strategy initiated in 2016 by Stéphane Richard and which gave rise to the creation of Orange Bank in 2017.
Although the company managed to convince a little more than 2.6 million customers in France and Spain, it was unable to absorb its losses and posted a negative net result of 148 million euros for the year 2022. .