Kontist

Solaris is Europe's leading Banking-as-a-Service platform. As a technology company with a full German banking license, Solaris enables other companies to offer their own financial services. Via APIs, partners integrate Solaris’ modular banking services directly into their own product offering. The platform offers digital bank accounts and payment cards, identification and lending services, digital asset custody as well as services provided by integrated third-party providers. Solaris is regulated by the European Central Bank and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, BaFin.

Yes, Solaris has a full German banking license and is therefore subject to the supervision of the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, BaFin).

You will not receive any advertising from Solaris. All communication towards you will typically take place via our partner or directly within the App of our partner. Due to the contractual relationship between Solaris and the partner, you may however receive notifications from both parties in the course of using this product. 

Please answer a few short questions here so we can evaluate your needs. We will respond to your enquiry as soon as possible.

In its ruling of 27 April 2021, the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled that clauses in general terms and conditions ("GTC") may be invalid if they simulate the customer's consent to changes in the GTC in the absence of an objection within a certain period of time. Solaris also used a corresponding clause in its GTC.

Since the publication of the ruling, Solaris will only make material changes to the contract, which include changes to our list of prices and services, with your express consent. For this purpose, Solaris will send you a notification of the planned change and its background via cooperation partners. You have the option of accepting or rejecting this change. In the absence of a response within two months, Solaris must assume that you are not actively using the account and will restrict your access to Online Banking until you have provided a response.

Another consequence of the ruling is that bank customers can reclaim the overcharges they have paid on the basis of unlawful increases. These can be, for example, account management fees or other fees for payment services. The refund obligation applies to all claims for refund that are not yet time-barred. Please note that Solaris has only introduced or increased isolated fees by means of an amendment to the GTC during the relevant period. If you are of the opinion that a fee adjustment should have been inadmissible, please contact Solaris’ Customer Support via e-mail to support@solarisgroup.com.

For regulatory reasons, you must identify yourself to use this product. Currently, you can identify yourself through a video ident process, from home or mobile. A connection will be established between you and our video ident provider, IDNow, to check your ID card/passport.

The link is valid for 14 days.

The VideoIdent process is completely digital and is typically completed in fewer than 10 minutes.

Solaris is a purely digital bank. Hence, we do not have any branches. Please use the identification method provided to you by our partner.

It is possible that the identification was interrupted due to instability in your internet connection. It can also be that the lighting conditions or your camera resolution were insufficient to detect and document all the security features of your ID document.

The VideoIdent process always meets the highest technical security standards and is approved by the regulatory authorities. All your data is subject to applicable privacy policies.

For new customers, the law requires Solaris to perform a unique identity verification (legitimacy). These are carried out by our service provider IDnow.

In order to identify our customers, we use IDnow as a service provider for identification processes. You will need internet access, a computer with a webcam or a smartphone or tablet and a valid identification document. The identification takes place via a live video connection to an IDnow agent. Experience has shown that the customer needs a stable internet connection. It is therefore advisable to conduct the identification from a WiFi network to avoid the process being aborted.

Due to the continuous low interest rate environment, we are adapting to the market developments and have introduced a deposit fee for private and business accounts. For further information please check our List of Prices and Services (paragraph 2) on our Customer Information page.

Solaris is required by law to assess each new customer before they can make transactions with their account. For the majority of cases, this assessment takes just a fraction of second. In some instances, however, an additional review is required, which is performed by Solaris’ employees. Therefore, accounts of customers who couldn’t be assessed automatically need to be temporarily blocked by Solaris. This additional review can be necessary for different reasons, all of which are intended to ensure the secure and compliant use of your account. Due to compliance requirements, Solaris cannot always inform you about the reason for the account blocking until the assessment is complete.

As a licensed Bank regulated by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, Solaris is required to follow national and international requirements for financial institutions as well as internally established compliance procedures. If an account could not be opened for you, it means that, at least at for the time being, Solaris is unable to provide banking services to you.

For the majority of the time, you can use Solaris’ services without interruption. However, on occasion, it is possible that your account has to be temporarily blocked. This can be necessary for different reasons, all of which are intended to ensure the secure and compliant use of your account. In most cases, the reason for the temporary blocking of an account is when Solaris identifies that someone with criminal intent is attempting to highjack your account or Solaris is alerted by an extremely unusual activity on your account. In rarer cases, an account may also be seized as per order from authorities or stopped due to other technical reasons. If an account is blocked, you can expect Solaris to reach out with additional questions. Solaris cannot always inform you about the reason for the account blocking until the assessment is complete. 

Solaris may need up to 2 business days to collect all the information needed for a manual evaluation of an individual account and find a resolution to unblock the account or ask additional questions. However, in most cases you will be informed by our partner on the same day the account was blocked.  If you do not receive any updates within two business days, please reach out to our partners customer service above. 

Solaris uses automated systems that help to detect unauthorised or fraudulent transactions to keep the your funds safe. If an inbound or outbound transaction is put on hold, it is likely that it is currently being reviewed by Solaris. This typically takes no longer than one business day. If Solaris determines that the transaction is authentic, it will be released immediately; if not, you will be asked to answer some basic security questions that same business day. If the transaction does not meet Solaris’ internal security requirements or you fail to provide sufficient answers to Solaris’ questions, Solaris reserves the right to cancel the transaction or send it back to sender. In some rare cases there might be a technical issue/maintenance of Solaris’ banking system that may cause payment processing to be delayed.  Solaris cannot always inform you about the reason for the halted transaction until the assessment is complete.

Solaris reserves the right to terminate the business relationship with you under certain circumstances according to Section 19 (3) of our Terms & Conditions. Examples of these certain circumstances include in particular, but are not limited to, wrong information obtained by the customer, serious and continuous breaches of contractual obligations by the customer, severe changes in the customer’s creditworthiness and evidence that the Account has been highjacked and/or is being used for illegal purposes. Accounts may also be closed if, after opening the account, we made the internal decision that acceptance of a customer was not in line with our policies and procedures, but due to technical reasons the Account was opened regardless. Closure of the Account does not necessarily imply that there was any wrongdoing by you yourself. 

As a licensed Bank regulated by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, Solaris is subject to banking regulations which, in certain scenarios, impose legal restrictions on the disclosure of details about specific restrictive measures being taken on your account. Solaris also has internal compliance procedures that define account blockings, account closures or the halting of transactions. Due to compliance requirements, Solaris is not always able to provide a detailed explanation on these internal procedures to you, in an effort to prevent fraudsters with criminal intent from abusing this information and attempting to exploit it. Whenever the reason for Solaris’ restriction of your account is related to something within your control (e.g. you failed to answer questions or forgot to send requested documents), Solaris will share this information with you.

Either the usage of your account was not in line with Solaris policies and procedures or you failed to sufficiently answer Solaris’ questions regarding your account activity. Within the timespan of 60 days your account can still be used to its full extent. Please withdraw all of your balance from your account before the closure date.

If you believe to have become a victim of fraud, you should immediately reach out to our partner or Solaris directly and initiate a payment recall. There is no guarantee that the funds will be recovered but if the fraudster is still holding the funds in the account, they may be requested to be returned. You should always file a criminal complaint at the police if you suspect to have been a victim of fraud.

First, please reach out to Solaris directly as soon as possible. Please provide all evidence (screenshots, emails, chat screenshots, invoices, etc.) that support your claim. Solaris takes each such request seriously, carefully investigates each case and takes all legally required actions. You should always file a criminal complaint at the police and initiate payment recall with your own bank.

As a licensed bank regulated by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, Solaris occasionally has to ask you additional questions to ensure the secure and compliant use of your account. In most cases, this is required when Solaris suspects that someone with criminal intent is attempting to highjack your account or make a fraudulent transaction, or when Solaris is alerted by an extremely unusual activity on your account. By accepting Solaris’ terms and conditions for using Solaris’ services, your agree to cooperate with Solaris to resolve additional inquiries about activity on your account. In instances when your ignore inquiries, Solaris reserves the right to treat this as a breach of the terms and conditions and consequently terminate business relation with you.

As a licensed Bank regulated by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, Solaris is subject to data protection policies as per the present regulations. Without your explicit consent, no answers or data is shared with third parties. Access to all answers and documents provided by you is limited to the employees of our partner and Solaris to the extent required to perform the assessment of your activity.

Unless our partner explicitly states that the account may be used for private purposes, the account is restricted to be used for business/freelance purposes only. Failure to adhere with accepted terms and conditions may lead to the account being closed.

No. Accounts are only allowed for your own usage and own purpose.  The customer is personally liable for any transactions conducted with the account. Therefore, if any third-party conducts transactions with criminal intent on your account, you are personally responsible and may be subject to prosecution by authorities.

No. In these cases it is likely that a fraudster is trying to steal your identity under the pretense of conducting an app test. Although it may appear like a legitimate user testing of an app, in reality, you are opening a regular bank account and unknowingly granting access to the fraudster. These accounts may later be used for money laundering or fraud. With this scam, it is possible that the fraudster remains undetected while you may be subject to prosecution by authorities.

No. It is a criminal offense to knowingly open accounts for third parties and hand over the account access. These accounts may later be used for money laundering or fraud. If any third-party conducts transactions with criminal intent on the account, you are personally responsible and may be subject to prosecution by authorities.

For termination, please reach out first and directly to the customer support of our partner above. They will provide guidance on the termination and take care of the termination together with Solaris.