Santander's New Play: Mobile Data
Hey Digital Banking Fanatic!
Your bank wants to sell you a phone plan now.
Santander just launched an eSIM service directly inside its banking app, giving customers mobile data in over 160 countries without swapping a physical SIM. Spain goes first, with Portugal and Mexico next in line.
It's a textbook embedded-finance move, just flipped. Instead of FinTechs embedding banking into non-financial apps, here's a bank embedding a non-financial product into its own. Own more of the customer's daily life, reduce churn, turn attention into revenue.
And Santander isn't alone. Starling, Revolut, and Qonto have all already partnered with Gigs, quietly making eSIM travel data a standard feature across digital banks and business finance platforms alike. When a traditional bank and multiple neobanks independently land on the same partner for the same feature, that's not a coincidence. That's a playbook forming.
Now, let's dive into today's biggest Digital Banking stories. 👇
See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
📊 Revolut 🆚 N26
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NEWS
🇪🇸 Santander launches eSIM service in Spain, letting customers buy international data plans from the banking app. Built with Gigs, the solution covers 160+ countries and will expand to Portugal and Mexico as part of Santander's strategy to scale digital services globally.
🇺🇸 Chime has cut 10% of its total workforce, or about 140 jobs, as the U.S. neobank points to AI-driven efficiencies behind the reduction. The cuts follow a similar move by fellow digital bank Starling Bank earlier this year and are part of a broader wave of FinTech layoffs that has seen major players reduce headcount throughout 2026.
🇪🇺 UniCredit, Accenture, and IBM are collaborating to build Europe's next-generation banking platform, combining mission-critical system resilience with modern digital flexibility. As part of the deal, Accenture will acquire from IBM the majority stake in the joint venture managing UniCredit's technology infrastructure, setting a reference model for banking technology in Europe and enabling faster AI scaling across the Group.
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