User:Stink Hens/sandbox 2

Nickel (formerly Compte-Nickel) is a French alternative banking service open to any natural person from the age of twelve or over, without income conditions and without the possibility of overdraft or credit. The service was created in 2014 by the payment institution Financière des Paiements Electroniques, with electronics engineer Ryad Boulanouar 4 and financier Hugues Le Bret 5 as co-founders and developers. This banking service is an alternative means of the bank account.

This is the first current account using a registration terminal at a tobacconist 6 who registers with an identity document also justifying the nationality of the subscriber, as well as a mobile telephone number. This account is active immediately and opens in 5 minutes. When opening the account, the customer obtains a RIB and a MasterCard bank card with his code, for the sum of 20 euros (annual fee). There are also fees for cash withdrawals.

In 2017, the French bank BNP Paribas announced that it was buying 95% of the shares of the Financière des Payments Electroniques, the parent institution of Compte-Nickel. The Confederation of tobacconists remains a shareholder with 5%.

In date of October 1, 2020, the service has 1,762,000 customers.

In January 2023, Nickel announced that it had crossed the symbolic threshold of 3 million customers in France.