It will be profitable in 2022, hopes Société Générale. Despite occupying the field with Boursorama, the French banking establishment launched a new low-cost neo-bank offer, supposed to compete with the free and low-cost offers which are in full swing. The offer thus dubbed “Kapsul” will be a potential lever to help Societe Generale once again find growth in its number of customers, which is currently stagnating at around 7 million.
The Kapsul offer takes the model imported by neo-banks, namely a fully digital service, which allows you to manage your accounts via a mobile application. But the current account and the bank card of this new offer will also stand out from its new independent competitors, relying on the financial products of traditional banking, as well as its network of branches, in case of specific needs.
© Societe Generale
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A bank account at 2 € per month
In the past, Societe Generale only offered “Sobrio”, to attract low-income customers wishing to subscribe to a cheap banking offer. At 6.2 euros per month, it was not already competitive at the time, and since the arrival of new offers such as Ma French Bank (La Banque Postale), Eko (Crédit Agricole), Essentiel (LCL) and Enjoy for Caisse d’Épargne, Société Générale understood that things had to change.
The “Kapsul” offer at two euros per month includes a current account and a bank card. The account does not authorize any overdraft, and the bank card is limited to 1000 euros of payments / withdrawals per month, and 300 euros over a week. In addition, everything is managed from the mobile application and the site. However, customers will also be able to respond to their requests from the agency, but these requests will each be invoiced at 5 euros. Société Générale explains that the goal is not to find profitability with these revenues, but simply to target the clientele that corresponds to this new banking offer.
Boursorama, Fortuneo, ING: when online banking responds to neo-banks
About the advantages and differentiations of this banking offer with the competition, there is one element: the possibility of cashback. In fact, Société Générale introduces this economic advantage when paying by bank card, in order to encourage its customers to use it. Thus, for each purchase, they will be able to find a percentage of each expenditure made. “At the end of October, we launched a new cashback program for online, in-app and store purchases. In the space of two months, 300,000 euros have been donated to 60,000 customers “, explained Marie-Christine Ducholet, the director of Societe Generale’s retail banking in France.
Increase the number of clients
The Kapsul offer arrives on January 28, and will target a young, low-income clientele that the bank describes more as a clientele. “Price sensitive”, “Comfortable on digital”, and that “Has frugal needs”. It hopes to be able to regain growth, as its number of customers stagnates at 7 million, and the competing offers of online banks and neo-banks have not stopped growing – N26 has reached 5 million customers at worldwide.
In order to be attractive, Societe Generale will put in place a satisfied or reimbursed contract. Thus, even after a year, customers who have not been won over by the offer will be able to ask to find their twelve monthly payments paid: Société Générale will return their 24 euros to them.
Société Générale is targeting 2022 to find profitability with “Kapsul”. But at least the bank is thus listed in the cheapest offer that can be found in the bank today. She also imagines that her Kapsul clients will later be able to migrate to other offers from the bank, especially if they are young workers. ” Seamless “, as the bank said, it is easy to imagine that customers will be able to keep their IBAN, their account identifiers and even claim to have advantages, by upgrading their banking offer within the establishment.
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