bunq opened its banking-as-a-service platform, bunq-as-a-Service, to businesses across the EU on 23 June 2026. bunq is one of Europe's largest neobanks, headquartered in Amsterdam and operating on a full Dutch banking licence. The platform launched in April 2026 with anchor partner Blockrise, a Dutch Bitcoin platform, and has now been extended to mid-size and enterprise companies. Through an open API, partners can issue virtual cards, process instant SEPA transactions, manage funds, and run fiat on- and off-ramps, with deposits protected up to €100,000 under bunq's banking licence and the Dutch Deposit Guarantee Scheme. bunq is targeting companies across retail, e-commerce, SaaS, mobility, the gig economy and crypto.
How the Blockrise launch works
The one partner actually live so far is Blockrise, a Bitcoin platform founded in 2017 and regulated by the Dutch AFM under MiCAR. Its users can now get an embedded euro IBAN account, with Blockrise owning the interface and bunq supplying the licensed banking layer underneath. According to both companies, 40% of Blockrise's eligible users moved to their personal bunq IBAN in the first month (though we do not know what 'eligible' means). In April, bunq described the programme as an exclusive group, and now, two months later, it is open to the industry.
What Qonto and Holvi already do
While it is a great move, bunq is not the first, nor even the second, European neobank to do so. Qonto launched an embedded banking offering last year (EFR), and the Finnish accounting platform noCFO runs a Holvi-powered business account within its bookkeeping software, so Holvi appears to offer a similar service (EFR). The shape is the same in each case. The customer signs up for the neobank's own account, can still manage it directly in the neobank's app or website, and the embedding brand gets a deeper, branded integration than plain Open Banking would allow. noCFO is a useful tell, having chosen a neobank over a traditional BaaS provider partly because Holvi serves the same small-business audience it does. But there is one major difference between bunq's offering and the other two neobanks: bunq has a banking licence.
Why does a full banking licence change the offer?
Since bunq holds a Dutch banking licence, the embedded account is a real bank account, with Deposit Guarantee Scheme protection up to €100,000. Qonto and Holvi run on e-money licences, where customer funds are safeguarded rather than deposit-guaranteed, which is a big difference. E-money institutions are required to park customer funds in a separate bank account; this process is known as safeguarding. These banks are barred from lending these amounts or otherwise using them, so one could argue the money is, in fact, more sheltered than a deposit that a bank can lend out. Nevertheless, the €100,000 guarantee is simply the easier story to tell a consumer, which is why bunq and others lead with it.
The licence also does more than just deposit protection. Lending is the part worth watching, because an e-money institution is not allowed to lend, whereas a banking licence permits it. bunq has not said whether lending will form part of bunq-as-a-Service, but the licence keeps that door open. bunq is in expansion mode regardless, having launched an Italian IBAN on the same day and lined up bids for banking licences in the US and Mexico. bunq-as-a-Service is one more way to put the licence to work. Whether the guarantee is a real draw for partners or mostly a cleaner line on a sales deck remains the open question.
