Launched in 2015, Black Banx, a Toronto-based digital bank has amassed over 40 million customers.
Less than a decade after going public, the fintech company has made impressive strides in offering services to a global customer base and has paid particular attention to financial inclusion. Led by founder and CEO German billionaire Michael Gastauer, Black Banx’s core mission is to unlock a borderless financial system for everyone where money can flow freely.
The Beginning
After Gastauer completed his studies in 1999, a variety of companies, including Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro and Andersen Consulting offered him a job. First, Gastauer took a role at Gorilla Park, a startup incubator developing new companies up until IPO stage. The Munich-based business tasked Gastauer to create an office in Switzerland.
In 2001, along with three others, Gastauer founded a Zurich-based asset management firm. The company was partly sold to a German hedge fund manager within three years of its inception and later sold for $15 million to a Swiss investment company.
Following a solid start to the decade, in 2003 Gastauer created a payment solution for ecommerce sites and other internet industries. His solution included offering a global platform for accepting card payments. As one of the first in Europe to make substantial gains in this industry, the company grew exponentially in a short period of time. Gastauer soon expanded operations and opened offices in Asia and North America. The company achieved a valuation of $480 million before its assets were sold to an Asian banking group in 2008.
After nearly two decades as a professional in the financial services industry, Gastauer became aware of flaws in the systems which he chose to operate with. Namely, a lot of these negatives were found in cross-border banking. To combat this, Gastauer with the help of senior software experts, created Black Banx in 2013 (originally named WB21).
Black Banx
The Black Banx Group operates through long-established businesses with an international network spanning 180 countries. It is estimated that 80% of Black Banx’s operations lie in international transactions. The remaining 20% is cryptocurrency and currency trading related. Serving over 40 million customers as of April 2024, the fintech company had solidified its global dominance and standing in the digital banking market.
Services offered to business and private customers:
- Private and business Group accounts in 28 FIAT and 2 crypto currencies
- International payments in 28 FIAT and 2 crypto currencies using local instantsettlement systems where possible (e.g. FPS, SEPA instant credit, etc.)
- Inter platform instant payments in 28 FIAT and 2 crypto currencies
- Multi Currency Mastercard Debit Card (plastic and metal) + virtual cards
- Real time 24/7 currency exchange services
- Real time 24/7 crypto trading services
- Interest bearing savings accounts in EURO, USD, GBP, JPY
- Batch upload or API to execute large number of payments for business customers
Latest figures
This week [Wednesday 1 May, 2024], Black Banx announced record breaking numbers in their first quarterly report of the year. The report states a profit-before-tax of $639 million, net revenues of $2.1 billion and 45 million customers. The digital bank’s target ratios have improved compared to last year’s figures.
Revenues were up 268% compared to the last quarter of 2023.
“This quarter, we achieved triple-digit profit growth and our highest profit since 2015, through disciplined execution of our long term strategy to build a solid client base and stable customer engagement with our platform. Introducing a fixed monthly fee for account maintenance had the risk of reducing our customer acquisition rate and could have resulted in slowing down the overall growth of our business. However, the upside of increasing revenue, improving cost/income ratio and growing profits supported our decision. Having reached 45 million clients that frequently engage with our platform, we could take this important step to create a solid revenue momentum in an environment of decreasing payment fees. Our strong capital base enables us to increase distributions to shareholders while supporting business growth,” said Michael Gastauer, Group Chief Executive Officer.
Black Banx is continuously making carefully targeted investments in technology to improve the scale and resilience of its core systems. With customer numbers, revenues and profits rising year upon year, this digital bank, led by Gastauer is showing no signs of slowing down,
