Neobanks and the next step: illimity

15/07/2021Interview
Carlo Panella, Head of Direct Banking and Chief Operations Officer at illimity, describes how the organization has grown from a PowerPoint presentation just two years ago to a bank with over 600 employees today.  


The demographics of neobank users are often surprising; it is not only young people who are signing up, but also older age brackets. What is the standard profile of your target customer? What has been key to your customer acquisition success?
 
At illimity, we are proud to be not just a neobank, but a new paradigm bank. These are banks with totally new business models and sustainable strategies. Illimity is a fully digital bank – on the cloud, fully modular, and data centric – and able to capitalize on new technology and with no legacy from the past. Illimity also combines the lean and agile nature of neobanks with the depth of offerings of a traditional bank.
 
This conscious strategy enables us to reach out to all sorts of people, from a wide range of different demographic backgrounds across Italy. Our bank’s average customer is 44 years old, and we have a deposit balance 20 times greater than that of the average challenger bank. Our success comes from the breadth of what we offer, the user experience that generates positive word-of-mouth feedback and an advanced digital marketing approach. Our unique IT architecture also offers competitive advantages, and these will become even more visible in 2021 and beyond.

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