SG Acquires Banking-as-a-Service Company Treezor

Société Générale acquires Treezor. This FinTech designs white-label products and infrastructure for banking services to roughly 30 start-ups. With this acquisition, Société Générale stresses both BtoB partnerships and promising projects in the context of PSD2 implementation. They also intend to meet for Open-Banking related challenges.

The amount of this transaction hasn’t been disclosed. Treezor FinTech was founded in 2016, to provide white-label banking services and make their EMI approval available to their customers. These services are provided via their set of APIs to roughly 30 customers, with or without a PI or EMI licence.

Account opening, payments, KYC and card issuing are among proposed services. They also promise significant cost reductions for their customers. Treezor mutualises their platform so prices can be reduced and they can aim for all types of customers (including very small companies) unlike traditional banks.

In 2018, Treezor experienced strong growth, and even exceeding their objectives, especially regarding payment flows. Their customer base increased from 22 to 30 customers, and their payment flows grew from €200 million in 2017 to 3 billion in 2018. They issued three times as many cards (300,000). Treezor also assisted some start-up gems, especially Lydia, their first customer, which claimed one million customers in the end of 2017, in 5 European countries.

Comments – SG looks into EU-wide Open-Banking and Open-Innovation

With this buyout, Société Générale reaches out for the FinTech ecosystem as, over the years, it became key to addressing actual needs on a fast-changing market. They are building a network of partners, with whom they may later launch pilot tests and projects, as a result from PSD2 implementation. They will be able to closely monitor these projects via acting as financial partners of choice. They are also aiming for a promising FinTech ecosystem: Treezor already works with several start-ups, such as Lydia and Qonto.

SG will enjoy a dedicated Banking-as-a-Service structure: this model is now gaining ground. This buyout also follows the launch of TagPay in France: another PSP, with SG as one of their main shareholders.

European banks are opting for different strategies when it comes to dealing with FinTechs. BBVA built several partnerships and even launched an Open Marketplace, to manage these relationships. ING announced several agreements, too, and aims for Europe with an aggregation offer for financial services.