Trade Republic Brings Back Human Support and Launches Customer Council

A strange idea for a fintech company. Trade Republic has decided to introduce human customer service after reaching the limits of an ultra-automated model. “We realized that human interaction still has its place in the relationship between a user and their bank, even in 2026,” Vincent Grard, head of France at the German neo-brokerage firm, explained.

As part of its “24/7 telephone support with real people” initiative, Germany’s most highly valued fintech company – which raised €12.5 billion in its last funding round in December – is hiring 1,000 internal and external advisors who will be available at any time of day or night, 7 days a week. Until now, Trade Republic had only 600 employees.

Trade Republic’s “Customer Council”

Previously, Trade Republic’s customers could submit their problems and questions through a single channel: the in-app chat. In theory, this was capable of providing an immediate response. If not, the customer’s issue was escalated to an engineer. However, in practice, customers often received an unsatisfactory or delayed response.

“We admitted that, potentially, we were wrong,” acknowledges Vincent Grard. In truth, the company had little choice. In Germany, the criticism had grown to such proportions that the financial regulator (BaFin) intervened. And BaFin doesn’t take this kind of thing lightly. It had, for example, capped the growth of the neobank N26 due to its repeated compliance breaches.

Trade Republic emphasizes it is still tech-driven, but now positions AI as a support tool for humans

Trade Republic, whose workforce was previously comprised of half engineers, is not abandoning technology and artificial intelligence. “We are a technology company with a banking license rather than a technology bank,” insists Vincent Grard. “In short, it’s no longer the user and AI, but AI serving humans, with humans building the relationship with the user.”

Another innovation: the fintech company will establish an international “Customer Council,” comprised of selected customers. This committee will regularly exchange information with management on product developments, customer expectations, and challenges to be addressed, explains Trade Republic, which has 10 million users worldwide, including 1 million in France.

What will be each country’s weight onTrade Republic’s committee? “It will reflect the number of clients in each country,” replies Vincent Grard. With the application period drawing to a close, the system should be ready in a few weeks, according to the executive.

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(Featured image by Igor Omilaev via Unsplash)

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First published in LesEchos. A third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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