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Review of Bankera — Bank Account Alternative

by Alexander Malygin

4 min read


Looking for an innovative banking solution of the digital era? It is worth paying attention to Bankera (Era Finance Ltd) electronic money institution!

Today, Finscanner will review this EMI with a selection of over 20 currencies and a range of services for both individuals and businesses. Our Bankera analysis covers everything you need to know about their open solutions and services, containing the latest information.


Learn more about EMIs in our article «Banking with Electronic Money Institutions».


Bankera is an authorized Lithuania-based electronic money institution founded in 2017. It offers multi-currency accounts, physical and virtual debit cards IBAN, SEPA, and SWIFT payments for businesses and individuals, as well as bank accounts for cryptocurrency businesses.

The crypto-friendly focus of Bankera allows its users to send and receive fiat money from/to crypto platforms. It offers a product that connects to the crypto exchange and wallets.

With a core team of about 40 people, the company intends to continue developing new features, such as margin trading and crypto investments, as well as experiment in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

Bankera has launched its iOS and Android mobile apps to make payment services easily accessible for Ukrainian refugees in Europe. Expressing its support for Ukrainians, the company provides its services mostly for free. There are no monthly maintenance, account opening, or card issuing fees, while transfers within Europe (SEPA) are free and instant. In the meantime, Bankera is working on Ukrainian language support.

According to Finscanner, the Bankera was placed in Top-3 best e-Money Institutions for high-risk businesses in 2022. Learn more here.

✅ Pros

  • Personal account opening is free of charge
  • Competitive pricing plans
  • Crypto friendly accounts
  • High transparency

❌ Cons

  • Setup fee to be paid upfront (no guarantees)
  • Unavailable in some locations such as in the US

NOTE: The above-mentioned pros and cons are drawn up by the Finscanner team’s point of view, while other Bankera reviews may say otherwise.


Profile

Bankera is managed by Era Finance Ltd, a registered agent of Pervesk UAB – an electronic money institution authorized by the Central Bank of Lithuania (Licence No. 17) for the issuing of electronic money and payment instruments.

  • Currency: 20+ currencies
  • Business focus: Bank account alternative for individuals and businesses
  • Solutions: Business Loans, Crypto-Friendly Business Accounts, Physical and Virtual Debit Cards
  • Customer groups: EU residents, non-EU residents, crypto-friendly
  • Authorized activities: Issuance of electronic money, execution of payment transactions on a payment account (not covered by a credit line), issuing payment instruments, or acquiring payment transactions.
  • Crypto-Related Activities: Yes

Personal pricing plan for EEA/non-EEA residents, UK, and Ukraine residents:

  • Application Fee: Free
  • Monthly Fee: Free
  • Closing Fee: Free
  • SEPA Outgoing: 0 - 1 EUR
  • SEPA Incoming: Free
  • SWIFT Outgoing: 2%
  • SWIFT Incoming: 1%
  • Crypto Exchanges (transfers to/from): Supported

Business pricing plan for conventional industries within the EEA and UK:

  • Application Fee: Free
  • Monthly Fee: 5 EUR
  • Closing Fee: Free
  • SEPA Outgoing: 0.1 EUR
  • SEPA Incoming: Free
  • SWIFT Outgoing: 0.2% + 7 EUR
  • SWIFT Incoming: 18.00 EUR
  • FX Markup Rates: 0.5%
  • Crypto Exchanges (transfers to/from): Supported

Business pricing plan for high-risk industries:

  • Application Fee: 450.00 EUR - 900.00 EUR
  • Monthly Fee: 50.00 EUR - 200.00 EUR
  • Closing Fee: 200.00 EUR
  • SEPA Outgoing: 0.04%
  • SEPA Incoming: 0%-0.5%
  • SWIFT Outgoing: 0.2% + 7 EUR - 0.5%
  • SWIFT Incoming: 18.00 EUR - 0.5%
  • FX Markup Rates: 0.65%
  • Crypto Exchanges (transfers to/from): Supported

Business Loans

Bankera offers corporate loans for small and medium-sized businesses to help them invoice financing, scale-up, expand online business operations. Loan specifics:

  • Loan amount: from 2.000 EUR
  • Interest rate:from 0.5% monthly
  • Loan maturity:1 - 60 months
  • Repayment: Flexible

Payments

As a Bankera customer, you can use dedicated IBAN to have access to two major payment networks – SEPA and SWIFT, pay in different currencies, and use currency exchange services for incoming and outgoing transactions. SEPA Instant credit transfers are also supported to allow transferring money between European financial institutions in a matter of seconds.

Debit Cards

Both physical and virtual Visa debit cards are compatible with ATMs all over the world. Businesses can apply for corporate cards linked to their company’s IBAN account for employees, business partners, or clients.

Personal Debit Card is a single currency card, it can be issued in EUR only.

Personal card pricing:

  • Ordering: Free
  • Monthly maintenance: Free
  • Delivery (by mail/registered mail/courier): Free/3 EUR/50 EUR
  • Card replacement: 10 EUR
  • Payments in shops (EUR) (in the EEA and UK): Free
  • Payments in shops (not in EUR/outside EEA): 1%
  • ATM fees: First three free withdrawals per month (EUR) (UK and EEA except Lithuania)
  • ATM fees over 3 withdrawals: 1 EUR/withdrawal
  • Withdrawals (not in EUR) (in the EEA and UK): 1%
  • Withdrawals (outside EEA): 2%
  • Withdrawals (in Lithuania): 1%
  • Balance enquiry: 0.5 EUR

Business card pricing (conventional/high risk):

  • Issuing: Free/19 EUR
  • Monthly maintenance: Free/9 EUR
  • ATM withdrawals (in the EEA and UK): 2%/3%
  • ATM withdrawals (outside EEA): 2%/5%
  • Balance enquiry: 0.5 EUR
  • Payments in shops (EUR) (in the EEA and UK): Free/1%
  • Payments in shops (not in EUR/outside EEA): 1% + 0.5 EUR

Crypto-Friendly Business Accounts

Bankera facilitates crypto-related businesses to open accounts for transfers to/from crypto platforms. Its bank account for cryptocurrency businesses works well for crypto brokers, exchanges, bitcoin mining farms, etc.

The crypto-client category is subject to the business pricing plan for high-risk industries (see above).

Summary

To assign a rating score, Finscanner assesses such key criteria as the pricing of the services, onboarding difficulty, support quality (customer service), and service popularity. In summary, Bankera was assigned the overall rating of 4.2 (Excellent) which is explained in detail below.

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Expert Review of Bankera

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“Bankera with its years of experience is a worthy alternative to traditional bank accounts. Accounts for European residents are free, while pricing for businesses depends on the industry and jurisdiction of the client. The company is always looking for timely solutions, for example, in the current geopolitical situation, one should note its proactive role in supporting Ukrainian refugees, to whom it also offers free services and helps in every possible way with opening accounts.

What also sets Bankera apart from the competition is that it is friendly to high-risk corporate clients such as cryptocurrency companies. We have previously ranked Bankera in our Top-10 list of e-money institutions for high-risk businesses in 2022. Opening a payment account for high-risk clients has long been an ongoing challenge, and Bankera is well positioned in this niche. Bankera's product portfolio continues to grow and the company is moving with confidence towards its goal of providing a full range of banking solutions in today's digital environment.“


Are you ready to start using Bankera?

All you need to do is to go to the Finscanner marketplace, search for the Bankera profile, and hit the "Apply" button. Next, you need to set up your Business or Individual account and pass verification. Once the verification application is submitted, it might take up to 24 business hours (3 working days) for the Bankera team to review it.

If you still have any questions left, feel free to contact us directly today!


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