New strategy of neobank Yapeal won’t affect Swiss Abroad, says CEO

Zurich's Paradeplatz, the centre of Swiss finance. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

By all accounts Yapeal was on its way to becoming a potential solution to the banking woes of Swiss living abroad. But some recent negative press about the neobank has raised concerns inside the Organisation for Swiss Abroad (OSA), which is a partner of Yapeal.

Trust is the foundation on which banks build their business. But at Yapeal trust has been put to the test. Two articlesExternal link that appeared recently on Inside Paradeplatz, an online financial news site, suggest that the neobank is on the decline. The bank was on the verge of firing staff, was in need of a financial rescue package, and would no longer cater to private clients, the site claimed.

Soon after these stories appeared, an analysis by the HandelszeitungExternal link, the most important business weekly in Switzerland, concluded that alarm bells were ringing at Yapeal.

A mountain out of a molehill

When contacted by SWI swissinfo.ch, Thomas Hilgendorff, the chief executive of Yapeal, said “we have simply focused our strategy”. The neobank will no longer do direct marketing. To acquire new customers, it intends to rely on partnerships and focus on business clients.

“We call this B2B4C [business-to-business for consumer, as opposed to B2C, business-to-consumer],” he said. “This means we are looking for partners who will themselves promote Yapeal to their own customers.” The goal is to continue attracting new clients who will open accounts at the neobank.

Thomas Hilgendorff is director of neobank Yapeal, which he founded in June 2018 with 14 partners Zvg

According to Hilgendorff, this strategic switch is due to the very large investments needed to acquire new customers from scratch.

“As a start-up, we simply can’t afford it,” he said. Unlike other online banks such as CSX (Credit Suisse) or Yuh (which has a partnership with Post Finance/Swissquote), Yapeal cannot rely on an existing pool of customers.

The consequences

If this new commercial strategy “doesn’t change anything for clients”, as Hilgendorff claimed, it is happening at a time when Abacus, one of Yapeal’s shareholders and strategic investors, is increasing its involvement in the business. The CEO of the neobank confirms that the two developments are linked.

“Abacus is the Swiss market leader with 60,000 clients, so it is an ideal multiplier for us,” said Hilgendorff.

These strategic changes will lead to redundancies – partly because the cooperation with Abacus involves reorganising teams, and partly because Yapeal will need fewer staff in its marketing department, according to its CEO.

“Some developers do not agree with this targeted strategy and so they have decided to leave the company,” he said.

Hilgendorff, however, promised that Yapeal’s customers will continue to benefit from the same services: “Yapeal’s targeted strategy has no consequences for the Swiss abroad.”

The partnership with OSA

In response to the stories published on Inside Paradeplatz and in the Handelszeitung, the OSA, which agreed a partnershipExternal link with Yapeal in December 2021, contacted the neobank to ask for clarification.

“As partners, we had a discussion with Yapeal,” said Ariane Rustichelli, the organisation’s director. “They were astonished at the turn that events had taken and sorry that the OSA was concerned.”

Ariane Rustichelli, OSA director Organisation des Suisses de l’étranger / Adrian Moser

“As long as there is no evidence to the contrary, the services for Swiss Abroad remain the same and Yapeal is not guilty of any inappropriate conduct,” she added. For the OSA, the fact that Yapeal has a fintech licence awarded by FINMA – the Swiss financial watchdog – serves as a guarantee.

The licence does, in fact, guarantee that the bank fulfils legal conditions laid down by FINMA and that it provides monthly financial reports. 

Hilgendorff says FINMA has asked him for details.

“We are in contact [with FINMA] about Abacus’s entry as a qualified investor and giving it a seat on our supervisory board,” he said. The regulatory authority confirms that it has been and remains “constantly in contact with the institution on this question”, independently of the stories that have appeared in the press.

Looking ahead

Hilgendorff is confident for the future. “We are flourishing,” he said.

Soon he aims to expand Yapeal’s services. He wants, for example, to make it possible to send money from any country in the world using a Yapeal account. At the moment this is only possible from Switzerland.

“We want to develop and bring more features to everyone, so to the Swiss Abroad as well,” he said. He also confirmed a mutual desire to pursue the partnership with the OSA.

(Translated from French by Catherine Hickley)