THREE QUESTIONS TO ARNAUD JACQUIN, CEO OF MYPOCKET
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- Who are you and what is MyPocket ?
My name is Arnaud Jacquin, I am the co-founder and CEO of Fair-eZone, the startup which developed MyPocket, a financial inclusion app offering daily banking services and international money transfers from the SEPA area. Our social commitment was rewarded at the end of 2019 by the Pôle Finance Innovation in the ESS category (Social and Solidarity Economy).
MyPocket is a financial inclusion app offering daily banking services and international money transfers from the SEPA area.
I came up with the idea of creating this project after discovering Muhammad Yunus’ work on microcredit, which made me realize how the banking system was unsuited to poor people’s needs. However it is necessary for every European resident to have a bank account for their daily life. I felt even more concerned when I discovered that in France it takes 6 to 12 weeks for a newcomer to open a bank account, and that requirements are often too high.
4.7 million people arrive in the EU every year and are subject to this problem, and 140 million European residents are practically excluded or totally excluded from the conventional banking system and do not have access to basic banking services. I could not believe to see so many people suffering and no one giving them a concrete solution.
After years of hard work, the project is now supported by a team of 15 determined people and our services include:
- Available bank accounts for EU residents + 5 countries including Norway and Iceland
- A current account in Euros or British pounds with an IBAN
- Instant transfers between members
- International transfers to unbanked and banked people
- Cash deposits in France, the UK and Ireland
Our solution is designed for newcomers, immigrants and more generally for everyone facing problems with traditional banks. MyPocket users are able to open a bank account in a few minutes and to receive their card in less than 2 weeks. We are the only ones to offer basic banking services to foreigners as well as to people with modest revenues and to refugees, all of them being totally ignored by other financial actors. Our ‘all included’ offer is dedicated to their needs and is suited to their lifestyle. It includes cash transactions in order to improve financial inclusion.
2) What is your target market and business model?
We aim to help immigrants needing an easy and fast solution for their daily life in Europe as well as other people having difficulties with traditional banks. They use MyPocket for their daily expenses as well as to receive money from their employers, public support services or their relatives. The real advantage for these people is to be able to combine daily banking activities with international transfers on the same account, and at very low fees compared to other actors. More than 20% of our customers are jobless, and the majority of them earns around 1000 euros per month.
Our business model lies on the fees we charge on transactions. Although they are much lower than those charged by other banks, a sufficient transaction volume allows us to be profitable. We are currently experiencing unprecedented growth: 53% more accounts were opened during the last term (April to July) compared to the previous one (January to March) and the transaction volume has increased by 80% since April. We expect our community to continue growing at a high pace.
3) What is the next step for MyPocket ?
Accessibility and affordability will always remain our priorities to guarantee our social impact, and we will keep adapting to our customers’ needs. We also want to be even more international. We hope to be completely independent soon to be able to accept even more different client profiles.
We are also working on a new development which involves using the Blockchain for international money transfers. This new process will help us continue to improve our internal functioning: it will accelerate transaction speed (a few seconds only), will bring more transparency on transaction statuses, and will help us to be even more competitive. Working within the Blockchain will also put us in contact with other actors from all over the world which already use it, making us able to offer more and better services to our clients. Our main targets for new corridors are new countries in Africa, Asia and latin America, their diasporas being very active and needing a trustworthy solution for their international transfers to their home country when they want to support their family.
Join the MyPocket adventure : www.mypocket.io/fr
