“Can a self-banked pan-European online broker vertically integrate the full brokerage and banking stack to become the default wealth-building platform for retail investors across Europe?”
Founded in 2006 as flatex, Germany's first independent online broker with fixed-fee trading. Acquired Dutch broker DEGIRO in 2019, rebranding the combined entity as flatexDEGIRO and becoming Europe's largest pan-European retail online broker. The group's embedded finance angle rests on operating its own regulated bank (flatexDEGIRO Bank SE) to internalize banking, custody, cash accounts, and securities-backed credit — avoiding reliance on third-party BaaS providers. By 2024 it operated three brokerage platforms (flatex, DEGIRO, ViTrade) across 16 European countries, serving 3.5 million customers with over 75 million transactions per year.
flatexDEGIRO discloses flatexDEGIRO Bank SE (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
flatexDEGIRO does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through flatexDEGIRO Bank SE (in-house).
flatexDEGIRO processes payments through flatexDEGIRO Bank SE (self-operated).
flatexDEGIRO uses Fourthline for KYC and identity verification.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 4 layers in flatexDEGIRO's stack: Payments / PSP (flatexDEGIRO Bank SE (self-operated)); Banking / BaaS (flatexDEGIRO Bank SE (in-house)); Lending (Securities-backed loan (Wertpapierkredit) — up to EUR 250,000, 6.25% p.a., unlimited term, repayable at any time); KYC (Fourthline).
flatexDEGIRO is founded in 2006 and headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against flatexDEGIRO and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.