Why Building Like a Tech Company Changes the Rules of European Investing

Vincent Grard, Country Manager France - Trade Republic

When Trade Republic is mentioned, it is often described as a bank. According to Vincent Grard, Country Manager France and Belgium, that label misses the point. “We position ourselves as a tech company with a full banking license,” he explains. “That changes everything—from how we build our infrastructure to how we price our products.”

This positioning is more than semantics. It reflects a deliberate strategic choice that sets Trade Republic apart from both traditional banks and earlier generations of online brokers. Rather than inheriting decades of legacy systems, the company was designed from day one as a technology organisation operating under a banking license.

Owning the Tech, Not Renting It

At the core of Trade Republic’s model lies full technological ownership. More than 60% of the company’s workforce consists of engineers, not bankers. Its core banking system, back office, mobile app and even custody infrastructure are built and maintained entirely in-house. “We own our technology,” Grard says. “We don’t rely on external providers for our core systems. That gives us full flexibility.”

This approach stands in sharp contrast to traditional banks, many of which still struggle with fragmented IT landscapes resulting from years of mergers and acquisitions. Those legacy environments slow innovation and make even minor changes complex and expensive. Trade Republic’s internal control allows it to identify and fix product issues within the same day—an agility that would be nearly impossible in most incumbent institutions.

Cost Discipline as a Strategic Weapon

Full-stack ownership also directly impacts cost efficiency. Traditional banks carry heavy fixed costs, ranging from physical branch networks to outdated IT systems. These structural burdens inevitably translate into higher fees for customers. Trade Republic follows a different philosophy. “We are extremely disciplined on costs,” Grard explains. “We don’t focus only on increasing revenues. We focus just as much on keeping the cost structure tightly under control.”

This discipline is a key reason why Trade Republic has been profitable from an early stage. It also explains how the platform can offer investment products with minimal fees while remaining economically sustainable. For users, the outcome is straightforward: access to capital markets without the traditional cost penalties of banking.

Simplicity Over Financial Education

Interestingly, Trade Republic does not aim to position itself as a financial educator. Grard is clear on this point: “Nobody wants to listen to a bank doing financial education.” Instead, the company partners with independent content creators who focus on financial literacy, while Trade Republic concentrates on product design. The objective is not to turn users into financial experts, but to create tools that are intuitive enough to be used without deep financial knowledge.

A prime example is the platform’s savings plan feature. Setting up a long-term investment plan requires only a few clicks: users select an amount, choose a frequency—monthly, weekly or quarterly—and decide which asset to invest in. Once configured, the plan runs automatically.

“Our mission is to help people build capital for their retirement,” Grard says. With public pension systems across Europe under increasing pressure, long-term private investing is becoming less of a choice and more of a necessity. Automation removes friction and hesitation, allowing users to invest consistently without having to actively manage decisions.

A Broader Shift in Banking and Fintech

Grard places Trade Republic within a broader historical evolution of financial services. The first phase was dominated by traditional banks, many of which are more than fifty years old and burdened by legacy systems and real estate costs. The second phase, over the past 15 to 20 years, saw the rise of online banks—often subsidiaries of incumbents—offering better digital interfaces but running on the same underlying infrastructure.

The most recent phase is driven by neobanks and new-generation brokers that are fundamentally mobile-first. “For Gen Z and millennials, mobile is the default interface for everything,” Grard notes. “They shop, communicate and manage their finances on their phones. Web is no longer central.”

This shift is not limited to banking. It reflects a broader change in consumer behaviour across industries, accelerated by the widespread adoption of smartphones. Financial players that fail to adapt their technology and operating models risk becoming structurally misaligned with how customers actually live and interact.

Automation Unlocks Investor Mindsets

One of the most significant fintech trends today is automation, particularly in ETF-based savings plans. According to Grard, this combination removes the two biggest psychological barriers to investing: understanding how to invest and deciding what to buy.

Automation answers the “how.” ETFs answer the “what,” offering diversified exposure without requiring complex asset selection. Together, they significantly lower the mental threshold for first-time investors.

Market data supports this view. Studies such as BlackRock’s annual People and Money report show that the European market for ETF savings plans is expected to grow exponentially over the next decade, driven by increasing wealth, generational transfers, and a growing awareness of retirement gaps.

A Blueprint for the Next Generation of Financial Services

What Trade Republic illustrates is not just the success of a single fintech player, but a broader blueprint for how financial services are being re-engineered in Europe. By building like a technology company—owning its infrastructure, prioritising automation, and enforcing strict cost discipline—the company demonstrates that scale, profitability and simplicity do not have to be mutually exclusive.

In an environment where public pension systems are under pressure and private capital formation becomes increasingly important, the role of financial platforms is shifting. The winners will not be those offering the most products or the most advice, but those that remove friction, reduce cognitive load and make long-term investing almost invisible in daily life.

For incumbents, the message is clear: improving user interfaces alone is no longer sufficient if the underlying systems remain unchanged. True transformation requires rethinking technology, organisation and cost structures from the ground up. For fintech leaders, Trade Republic’s trajectory confirms that mobile-first, automation-driven models are not a niche trend, but the new baseline.

As capital markets become more democratised and investment behaviour more habitual, competitive advantage will increasingly lie in control, simplicity and trust—embedded directly into the product by design. Trade Republic is betting that the future of investing will feel less like banking, and more like software quietly working in the background.