Online bank Bunq posted net profit of €53 million last year, the first full year in its 11-year history that the company has not made a loss. The company booked its first net profit in the final quarter of 2022 and said at the time it expected to book its first full year of profit in 2023.

The money will be invested in boosting the company’s global expansion, Bunq said. The company has now supplied for an e-money licence in Britain which, the bank said, will allow it to “tap into a large market that includes an estimated 2.8 million British digital nomads”.

The bank is also waiting for approval to operate in the US.

Bunq’s European user base reached 11 million at the end of last year. In the last quarter of 2023, Bunq’s gross fee income grew by 20%, compared to the last quarter of 2022, and user deposits grew almost fourfold, from €1.8 billion to almost €7 billion at the end of 2023.

Court case

Last August Bunq has won its case against the Dutch central bank to have two fines for failing to carry out proper money laundering sharply reduced.

Judges in Rotterdam said the fines should be slashed by 85% because the mistakes made by Bunq were far less serious than the central bank had claimed.

The Dutch company appeal court said last October the Dutch central bank was wrong to ban Bunq from screening its clients using AI techniques and data analyses.