FinecoBank of Italy is a highly tech-enabled bank that is a combination of a bank and a brokerage:
FinecoBank is a unique Italian bank with a business model combining a technology platform and a network of financial advisors. It is a bank, it provides credit, offers investment services and it is also a brokerage. It has the best tech platforms and an extensive network of financial advisors. All its offers are from a single account using transactional and advisory platforms developed using proprietary technologies. As of June 2024, it has financial assets worth €131.3 billion and 1.6 million clients.
FinecoBank has been adjudged as the Best Digital Bank Italy and the Best Online Deposit, Credit and Investment Product Offerings Italy. In 2021 it has been designated as a Significant Institution under the criteria of European Banking Supervision and is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.
TOP CLASS TECH STACK
FinecoBank prefers to be called a fintech bank. It has a most modern tech stack that combines Kubernetes, Oracle and Google technologies. It is a fully digital organization, with no branches since its inception, offering an array of products that include trading, investment, and payment services. Some of its unique propositions include no minimum deposit, very low investment fees (starting at a flat fee of £3.95 per order). It also offers a single account with banking, trading and investment services. Today, it is a leading brokerage in Europe, a key player in Private Banking in Italy and has a major advisory network. It is now in the UK, offering brokerage, banking and investment services.
TRADING PROCESS
One of its unique business methodologies is that it collects orders from customers through the internet using different front-ends, validating them against buying/selling power and several regulatory rules, and then forwarding them to the relevant exchanges and back to its trading system. It uses its unique messaging infrastructure for the last 20+ years to manage the order flow among the different processes. The backend trading platform is written mostly in C++, and it has lately introduced Golang, the open-source programming language created by Google for web development, system programming, and other applications.
A FinecoBank account includes a current sub-account in sterling and multi-currency sub-accounts in Euro, US dollars and Swiss francs. One can also add multi-currency sub-accounts in any other currency. Using the account, one can deposit and withdraw money, pay for goods and services, or any regular payments. The bank also provides debit cards in sterling, euro or both.
PROS & CONS
Some of the unique features of the FinecoBank accounts are:
- Manage tax declarations for the customers
- Reduced fees for customers under 30
- Zero commissions for several ETFs
Some disadvantages too, including:
- No fractional shares
- High fees if no promotions applied
- Only available in Italy and the UK
In fact, FinecoBank offers 2 types of accounts – the Fineco account and the Trading account. The Fineco account is free of charge for the first 12 months, after which a monthly fee of €3.95 is charged but this fee can be eliminated if some requirements are met that include: having one’s salary or pension credited to the Fineco account, being under 30, if one has a pension fund with an annual payment of at least €1,000, if one choses to have an advanced advisory service of at least €20,000, have a managed savings of at least €40,000 and a minimum of 4 trading transactions executed per month.
The trading account is, on the other hand, free of charge.
FinecoBank customers can use UniCredit Group branches to make withdrawals and deposits throughout Italy. It does not have the requirement of any minimum amount to open an account.
ACCOUNT OPENING
A prospective customer can open an account in FinecoBank quickly using the online procedure, provided that 2 basic requirements are met: residence in Italy and being 18 or over. It is not necessary to submit pay slips or guarantees of any kind to start the account opening process. However, one must have to have one’s tax code and a valid identity document. It also has a mobile app and a website.
Fineco is authorized by the Bank of Italy and supervised by CONSOB, the Italian securities market regulator. An investor is protected by the €20,000 EU investor protection scheme. It is also a member of the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund, which guarantees each Fineco account holder up to a maximum of €100,000 in the event of bank insolvency.
Majority of FinecoBank customers have the view that it is a better alternative as a broker for investing in the financial markets. Though the commissions are on an average high, if one takes advantage of the various promotions, one can reduce or even eliminate transaction costs. A customer also has the option of adopting the administered regime, which makes the service very convenient as the customer does not have to worry about any tax declaration as Fineco will do everything for him or her.
This article has been compiled based on publicly available information on the web, particularly the bank’s own website.
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