Dutch online bank Bunq has applied for a licence to operate in the US, targeting the five million ‘digital nomads… with strong ties to both sides of the Atlantic’ who are living there.

‘We’re going stateside with a simple proposition, offering a banking product that enables US consumers and businesses to bypass banking bureaucracy by opening a fully fledged international bank account in just five minutes,’ Bunq founder Ali Niknam said on the company’s website.

Bunq said in February it had made its first quarterly profit in its 10 year history – posting a plus of €2.3 million in the final three months of 2022. The profit is due to an increase in revenue from subscriptions, which were up 37% on the previous year, the company said.

Niknam, who founded the bank in 2012, said at the time expansion outside Europe is now on the cards.