Trade Republic Bank GmbH is a German bank and investment platform supervised by BaFin and the European Central Bank. The platform offers current accounts, Visa cards, interest on uninvested cash, trading in shares, ETFs, derivatives and cryptoassets, savings plans and access to selected ELTIF private-markets products.
Protection differs by product. Eligible bank deposits at Trade Republic or its partner banks may fall within the relevant deposit-guarantee scheme; cash placed in liquidity funds and investment assets are protected under different legal arrangements and remain exposed to market risk. Eligibility is limited to residents of supported European countries, and US persons are not accepted.
| Licence | Full banking licence since December 2023 (ECB approval, BaFin supervision); MTF operator since January 2026 |
|---|---|
| Who qualifies | Residents of the 18 markets of presence, aged 18+, with a SEPA account; US persons excluded |
| Entry threshold | €1 per trade; ELTIF private markets from €1 |
| Cash rate | 2% a year as of August 2026; the €50k cap was removed in July 2025 |
| Deposit protection | Partner bank's deposit-guarantee scheme up to €100k per client; segregation in liquidity funds |
| Private-markets cost | ≈2.35% (EQT Nexus) and ≈2.8% (Apollo) a year plus a performance fee |
| Scale | ≈10m customers, ≈€150bn in assets, ≈€12.5bn valuation |
| Status at date | Own execution model since 2 July 2026, after the PFOF ban |
Company, banking licence and scale
Trade Republic was founded in 2015 by three Berliners: former investment banker Christian Hecker, physicist Thomas Pischke and computer scientist Marco Cancellieri; the early anchor was the Düsseldorf broker Sino AG, which bought control in 2017. The app launched publicly in 2019, and mobile brokerage at a €1 commission quickly gathered millions of clients in Germany.
The company raised several large financing rounds, and a December 2025 secondary transaction provided a public valuation reference.
| Round | Amount | Valuation | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series B, 2019–2020 | over €60m | — | Accel, Founders Fund, Creandum, Project A |
| May 2021 round | $900m | $5.3bn | Sequoia (lead), TCV, Thrive Capital |
| Extension, June 2022 | €250m | — | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan |
| Secondary, December 2025 | €1.2bn | ≈€12.5bn | Peter Thiel's Founders Fund increased its stake; Fidelity, Wellington and Singapore's GIC came in |
The investor base shifted from venture funds towards pension, sovereign and asset-management money.
In December 2023 the company obtained a full banking licence (ECB approval, BaFin supervision) and began turning into a full-service bank. In January 2025 the platform reported 8m customers and over €100bn in assets, opening national branches in France, Spain and Italy; in autumn 2025 Poland was added — the first market outside the eurozone, bringing the total to 18. By mid-2026, according to industry statistics, it had ≈10m customers, ≈€150bn in assets and a headcount of around 1,200.
According to the published financial information, the company was profitable: in the 2023/24 financial year it earned €34.8m net on revenue of ≈€340m — a rarity for a European fintech of this size.
Products and pricing
Trade Republic's Best Price mode is available for stocks and ETFs and charges a €1 settlement fee per trade. Its algorithm compares real-time tradeable quotes across the relevant reference exchanges; the order first executes directly against Trade Republic and is then routed in aggregate to those venues. A client who wants to choose a venue directly can switch to Direct Price.
Uninvested cash earns interest at the ECB deposit rate — as of August 2026 that is 2% a year, accrued daily and paid monthly; the €50k cap was removed in July 2025. Client money is spread across partner banks — Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Citibank Europe, Crédit Agricole CIB, Natixis and SEB — while large balances partly go into liquidity funds, where asset segregation replaces the deposit guarantee.
The banking layer covers the account, the card and cashback:
| Item | Terms |
|---|---|
| Current account | Local IBAN: German, French, Spanish, Italian or Dutch, depending on the branch |
| Visa card, virtual | Free |
| Visa card, plastic | €5 one-off |
| Visa card, metal | €50 |
| Saveback | 1% of card spending into a savings plan; up to €15 a month, spending under €1,500, active plan from €50 a month |
| ATM withdrawals | Free from €100, €1 below that |
Only the card media and small withdrawals carry a charge in this layer.
Since 2025 the platform has also offered selected private-markets products. Announced on 15.09.2025: a partnership with Apollo and EQT, entry from €1, and a rollout to all of the platform's markets by the end of 2025. The product is packaged in ELTIF wrappers — Apollo Private Markets ELTIF and EQT Nexus; on top of the funds' own quarterly windows, Trade Republic promises monthly liquidity through an internal marketplace.
Most of the cost of the private-markets products sits at the underlying-fund level: according to product breakdowns, ongoing charges run at ≈2.35% (EQT Nexus) and ≈2.8% (Apollo) a year plus a performance fee, and total costs in some modelled scenarios may be materially higher than the headline ongoing charges. The KID, subscription documents, performance fee, liquidity and valuation rules should be checked before investing. The pensions business is being rolled out next: in France, commission-free savings plans under the PEA tax wrapper and an account paying the local rate have launched; in Germany an Altersvorsorgedepot has been announced for the 2027 pension reform, and state-subsidised products are promised for all of the largest markets.
Comparable banks and investment platforms
A comparable German platform is Scalable Capital: its own ECB licence since 10.09.2025, BlackRock and Tencent behind it, and over 1m clients. Scalable Capital moved earlier to its own execution infrastructure following changes to the PFOF regime — since December 2024 orders have gone through its EIX venue, built with Börse Hannover, whereas Trade Republic only moved to its own model on 2 July 2026. The pricing logic differs too: €0.99 per trade or a PRIME+ subscription at €4.99 a month, plus a full desktop platform — Trade Republic lives deliberately in mobile-only.
Revolut and N26 attack from the banking side, embedding trading into an everyday app; eToro competes on global reach and copy trading. Trade Republic combines its own banking licence, local branches and IBANs in several markets, interest on uninvested cash and access to selected private-markets funds. Product terms and the responsible legal entity differ by country.
Eight EU retail platforms side by side, on each provider's own published terms as at 26 September 2026 unless the row says otherwise. Revolut uses its Irish retail terms; those prices and permissions are not a promise for every country or applicant.
| Platform | Licence and supervisor | What protects cash | Stock or ETF trade | Interest on cash | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade Republic | German bank since December 2023, ECB approval and BaFin supervision; MTF operator since January 2026 | Deposit guarantee of the respective partner bank, up to €100,000 per client; part of large balances in liquidity funds | €1 per trade | 2% a year as of August 2026, no cap | 18 markets with local IBANs; US persons not accepted |
| Scalable Capital | Scalable Capital Bank GmbH, own ECB licence since 10 September 2025 | Statutory guarantee of €100,000 per bank; with PRIME+ spread across up to five banks for 5 × €100,000; without PRIME+ cash may sit in UCITS money-market funds | FREE: €0.99 per trade; PRIME+ at €4.99 a month: €0 for trades of €250 or more, otherwise €0.99; savings plans free | 2.60% a year, variable | Own execution venue since December 2024; full desktop platform alongside the app |
| DEGIRO | flatexDEGIRO Bank SE, a German bank supervised by BaFin; the Dutch branch is registered with DNB and supervised by AFM and DNB | Not stated on the fee page | On the Irish schedule: €2 plus €1 handling on the home exchange, €1 plus €1 on US exchanges, €0 plus €1 on the ETF Core Selection | Not part of the fee schedule | A connectivity fee of 0.25% of account value, at most €2.50 a year, for each exchange outside the home market that is traded or held |
| eToro | eToro (Europe) Ltd, CySEC licence 109/10 | Cyprus Investor Compensation Fund up to €20,000 | $1 or $2 per stock trade on opening and closing, by country of residence; ETFs at zero commission | Offered; the rate is not on the fee page | Copy trading and CFDs sit next to real shares; a $5 fee on withdrawals from a USD account |
| N26 | N26 Bank SE, Berlin; execution and custody by Upvest Securities GmbH | German deposit protection up to €100,000 on bank deposits | €0.90 per trade; 3 free trades a month on Go and 10 on Metal; from €1 | Not part of the brokerage offer | Securities sit with Upvest, the account with N26: two legal entities behind one app |
| BUX | BUX B.V., Amsterdam, authorised and regulated by the AFM | Not stated on the fee page | EU stocks €3.99 / €1.99 / €0.99 on Basic / Plus / Prime; US stocks and ETFs €0.99; plans €0 / €2.99 / €7.99 a month | 0% / 1.75% / 2.00% on up to €100,000 | Basic carries a 0.20% annual variable fee; FX markup on US shares from 0.75% down to 0.20% |
| Freedom24 | Freedom Finance Europe Ltd, CySEC CIF licence 275/15 of 20 May 2015; S&P rating BB | ICF: eligible claims for unreturned money/instruments up to €20,000 per client in aggregate; client exclusions apply. Not deposit insurance or compensation for market losses | 19 August 2026 fee schedule: Smart has no monthly fee; US/European stocks/ETFs: USD/EUR 2 per order + 0.02 per share. Auto Invest execution: 0; other services retain their fees | The cited fee schedule promises no idle-cash rate; check any separate cash-placement product and contract | Access to US, European and Asian exchanges and to Eurobonds from one account Bank withdrawal: EUR/USD 7 plus intermediary costs; specified partner/network waivers may apply. |
| Revolut — Ireland trading terms | Revolut Securities Europe UAB: Lithuanian investment firm authorised by the Bank of Lithuania; separate from Revolut Bank UAB | Segregation plus Lithuanian investor protection up to €22,000 if the investment firm is liquidated and fails to safeguard money/instruments; not market-loss cover | Monthly stock/ETP allowance: Standard 1, Plus 3, Premium 5, Metal/Ultra 10 orders. Then max(0.25%, €1); Ultra/Trading Pro max(0.12%, €1). Selected ETP investment-plan buys: no commission | No trading-account interest rate established by these sources; savings and cash-fund products need their own terms | Paid plans cost extra. No custody fee; FX/regulatory fees may apply. Recurring ETP buys have no €1 minimum. Availability and onboarding depend on country and eligibility |
The licence and the specific cash product must be read together: deposit protection concerns eligible bank deposits, while securities and liquidity funds follow different arrangements. Freedom24's eligible-client ICF protection and Revolut Securities' Lithuanian investor scheme address a failure to return client assets, not a fall in investment value. Price comes second: at €1 a trade Trade Republic and at €0.99 Scalable's FREE plan are close to BUX Prime and N26's €0.90, while eToro's per-trade dollar charge and DEGIRO's handling fee add up faster on small, frequent orders. Cash interest is the third axis: Trade Republic, Scalable and BUX publish a rate on idle cash, and eToro offers one without stating it on its fee page. Revolut's free-order allowance and Freedom24's per-share Smart charge need an order-size comparison; a zero recurring-investment execution fee does not remove other product or conversion costs.
Eligibility, protection of assets and limitations
Onboarding requires permanent residence in a supported country, adult age, an eligible phone number, a reference SEPA account in the applicant's name and completion of KYC. US persons are excluded. The cash rate, local IBAN, tariffs and available securities vary by market and may change.
A €1 minimum does not make an ELTIF liquid or low-risk. Before subscribing, review ongoing charges, performance fees, target returns, valuation, lock-up, redemption gates and the internal secondary-market rules. A monthly opportunity to sell is not the same as guaranteed redemption at NAV.
Legal and operating structure
The company developed from a mobile broker into a bank offering payment and investment products. The brokerage stage delivered millions of clients at a negligible acquisition cost; the December 2023 banking licence freed the company's hands on deposits and margin on balances; the private markets layer and pension wrappers add prestige products on top of a mass base.
The economics historically rested on four streams:
- margin on client cash;
- card interchange;
- turnover-driven €1 commissions;
- payment for order flow, which supplied around a third of revenue in 2023.
The EU's PFOF ban, whose transition period expired on 30.06.2026, closed the last stream — the response was an MTF operator licence from BaFin in January 2026 and an own execution model from 2 July 2026, in which the platform matches trades itself and earns on spreads. An own execution venue requires separate controls over best execution, pricing methodology, conflicts of interest and venue governance.
Expansion across Europe is organised through branches and local product adaptations, including national IBANs and tax or pension wrappers. This adds local disclosure, tax-reporting and conduct requirements. Partnerships with fund managers provide distribution but do not transfer product suitability or disclosure obligations away from the platform.
Regulation and status
Trade Republic Bank GmbH has held a full banking licence since December 2023 (ECB approval, ongoing BaFin supervision) and, since January 2026, a multilateral trading facility operator licence as well; client cash sits in omnibus trust accounts at the partner banks and is covered by the deposit-guarantee scheme of the respective partner bank, up to €100k per client, as Trade Republic itself puts it — with French, Irish and Swedish partners in the pool, that is not always the German scheme. The branches in France, Spain and Italy have been operating since January 2025; in total the platform is present in 18 European markets.
Milestones of recent years:
- 15.09.2025 — the private markets announcement with Apollo and EQT, launched by the end of 2025.
- December 2025 — the €1.2bn secondary transaction at a valuation of ≈€12.5bn.
- 02.07.2026 — the move to an own execution model after the PFOF ban.
Q/A
Can a non-EU resident open an account?
Onboarding requires permanent residency in one of the 18 countries of presence, an age of 18+, a European phone number, a SEPA account in your own name and a smartphone. The platform does not serve US citizens regardless of residency. Clients without EU residency will have to look at other jurisdictions.
What exactly are the private markets launched with Apollo and EQT?
The announcement was made on 15.09.2025 and the rollout completed by the end of 2025: the Apollo Private Markets and EQT Nexus ELTIF funds with entry from €1. Ongoing charges are ≈2.35–2.8% a year plus a performance fee; units can be sold monthly through the internal marketplace, while the funds themselves redeem quarterly and may cap redemption volumes.
How well protected is the money in the account?
Client cash is spread across the partner banks (Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Citibank Europe and others) and is covered by the deposit-guarantee scheme of the respective partner bank up to €100,000 per client — for the French, Irish and Swedish partners that is their own national scheme rather than the German one. Other cash can be placed in liquidity funds, which are investment assets rather than guaranteed deposits. Securities and ELTIF units are held under the relevant custody arrangement and remain exposed to market and operational risk.
What did the PFOF ban of 30.06.2026 change?
Trade Republic stopped receiving payment for order flow, which supplied around a third of revenue in 2023, and since 2 July 2026 executes trades on its own venue under an MTF licence. The default Best Price mode still costs €1 with quotes checked across 30 exchanges; Direct Price at €2 sends the order straight to a chosen exchange. Earnings have shifted into spreads, so it makes sense to check execution prices against Xetra on a sample basis.
How much does the platform pay on cash?
The rate is tied to the ECB deposit rate: as of August 2026 that is 2% a year, accrued daily and paid monthly. The €50k cap was removed in July 2025, so interest applies to the whole balance without limit. When the ECB rate changes, the yield changes automatically.