Lydia Comptes becomes Sumeria and focuses on current account remuneration

Lydia today announced that its Lydia Comptes application has been renamed Sumeria. This change goes far beyond a simple name, as Sumeria will be a fully-fledged bank with the status of a credit institution. Lydia's ultimate ambition is to make Sumeria a European neo-bank, with 5 million customers within three years.

FACTS

• Lydia currently has 8 million users, 2 million of whom use the banking functions of the application recently separated under the Lydia Comptes brand. It has now been rebranded Sumeria and aims to win over 3 million new users by 2027.

• With Sumeria, Lydia is evolving its approach to banking services to bring greater clarity to users, by separating P2P payments from deposit banking.

• All of Lydia's banking functions have been transferred to Sumeria, including IBAN accounts, card payments and payments via transfers and direct debits. But a new feature has been introduced, with systematic remuneration of all current accounts.

• Sumeria offers an interest rate of 2% of the balance (promotional rate of 4% for the first 3 months) if the Sumeria card is used at least 15 times a month, eliminating the need to create a separate savings account.

• On the brand side, Sumeria has completely revamped its mobile application with a new logo, a new card design and a simpler main screen. A web interface allows users to view their account balances and transactions without installing an application.

• Sumeria is focusing exclusively on the European market so that people living in France, Germany or Spain will feel like they are using a French, German or Spanish bank account.

CHALLENGES

• Simplifying banking services. While the majority of customers used Lydia for P2P payments, Lydia has continued to expand its services with new banking products, making its application more complex. For this reason, it recently decided to separate the P2P payment application from the banking products application. The creation of Sumeria is a logical extension of this reorganisation, with a marketing focus on simplicity. Hence the decision to pay interest on current accounts and to provide a simplified balance display at all times.

• A banking project with a European dimension: this new identity also reflects the opening of a new era. Lydia has applied for a credit institution licence for Sumeria, suggesting that its ambitions are much broader than those of Lydia Comptes. Lydia plans to invest €100 million in the new company and take on 400 employees over the next three years, with the aim of serving 5 million customers by 2027. The aim is for Sumeria to become its customers' main bank. To this end, the company will open a physical point of contact in Paris this summer, which should function like the Genius bar in an Apple Store.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• As a reminder, last month Lydia released a second Lydia application. It focuses on peer-to-peer payments, enabling people to send money and create pools using their mobile phones.

• In the same niche, Revolut confirmed its commitment to the French market at the Choose France summit, announcing a massive investment of €100 million over 2024 and 2025. The funds will be used for recruitment, an advertising campaign and the launch of new products, including a Livret A passbook savings account and a fully online mortgage, which has already been tested in Ireland and Lithuania.

• Recently, through the Nirio app, FDJ launched Nirio Premio, a bank account to compete with Nickel, helping people in financial difficulty with spending management tools. Nirio relies on Xpollens, a subsidiary of the BPCE group, for bank authorisation and account management.