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Comment by princekolt | Hacker News Reader

I'm still trying to understand the point of your comment, but regardless: You haven't heard of it. So what? People will be affected by this. This will also not be the only company who will have to leave the UK because they've deemed the cost of legalising their business there after Brexit is not worth the benefits. So you're either in denial about that fact or you think it doesn't matter, which perhaps works for you as a schadenfreude for the people affected? I don't get it.

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He's saying the reason they failed is nothing to do with brexit and everything to do with the fact that no one knew about them.

But they are blaming brexit instead of their own failure.

No, it has to do with the fact that when you have a smaller customer base and additional cost when running on razor-sharp margin, it doesn't make the cut. So yes it has to do with the Brexit as this is the reason for future additional cost, especially today when EU negotiator said that it will be very unlikely for the UK to get financial services equivalence. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/11/barnier-tel...

They started in the UK in October 2018 - more than two whole years after the UK voted to leave the EU.

It's as if they never knew what the UK people voted for!

At that time it was not certain that Brexit would be equal to no deal (at least for finance services). Now that this is the most probable outcome they have to take action.

They voted for increased political instability that is unfriendly to foreign business?

He's also saying that because he didn't know about them, they must not be well known, which isn't a great way to make a point.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Nobody is blaming anything. Brexit means that the N26's EU banking license will not be recognized in the UK. How is that a failure? It sounds more like they expanded to countries that they didn't really care about and once there are signs that those countries become even less attractive than expected they just stop operating there.

I think the point of parent's comment is that hardly anyone in the UK has heard of N26, so perhaps we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that it's all due to Brexit. Let's be honest, if they had a market here worth saving, they'd apply for the licence.

> if they had a market here worth saving, they'd apply for the licence.

That basically amounts to a tautology: if getting a license would be worth it, they would get a license.

It's not a tautology at all, it's the patently obvious. The only business reason they have to not apply for the licence is that they won't have any profits left over afterwards. Ergo they aren't very profitable, unless you're claiming that the licence is designed to be so costly as to keep foreign companies out, which I highly doubt, given that Britain (and especially the Conservative party) like to attract foreign investment.

Opportunity cost is another obvious reason to leave money on the table. If the company is small enough then they might rather focus on the EU first, esp. if they thought their specialty was “doorway to EU banking”.

That aspect does make more sense, and perhaps longer term with a divergence in regulation and with, makes sense short to mid term and may be an avenue they try again market wise and until then, best focus on growth area's.

But equally, they started in the UK in October 2018, and perhaps they may of gambled that the UK would stay more aligned or in the EU is my thoughts upon this as well.

They had 200_000 customers in the UK according to the BBC.

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