Comdirect just woke up and chose violence against its own customer base. While launching Pure Depot, a sleek, app-only brokerage offering €1 trades and commission-free ETF Sparpläne (savings plans), the German direct bank simultaneously told its loyal users to keep paying 1.5% on their existing Sparpläne or get lost. This isn’t a product launch, it’s a corporate identity crisis with a mobile interface.
The Pure Pitch: What Comdirect Actually Offers
Let’s cut through the marketing fluff. Pure Depot gives you:
– €1 per trade on stocks, ETFs, and bonds via Gettex (plus spreads)
– €0 on ETF and stock savings plans starting from €1 minimum
– Free depot management with no conditions
– App-only trading with a simplified interface
– 24/7 telephone support (the supposed killer feature)
– Access to 8,000+ stocks, 3,000 ETFs, and 16,000 bonds
On paper, this matches the neobroker playbook beat-for-beat. The target is clear: Generation Z and Millennials who’ve been flocking to Trade Republic and Scalable Capital. But here’s where Comdirect’s strategy starts looking less like innovation and more like institutional schizophrenia.
The Angry Mob: Why Existing Customers Feel Betrayed
The German finance community isn’t buying it. Many long-time Comdirect users express frustration that the bank created a separate product instead of fixing its own pricing. As one veteran investor with over €500k in depot volume put it: “Ich parke mein Jahrzehnte altes Altdepot bei comdirect und jeder neue Euro geht zur ING” (I’m parking my decades-old legacy depot at comdirect and every new euro goes to ING). The sentiment reflects a broader pattern: traditional banks refusing to cannibalize their own profitable legacy products, even when the market has clearly moved on.
The math stings. Comdirect’s classic depot still charges 1.5% per savings plan execution, a fee that was borderline acceptable in 2010 but looks like daylight robbery in 2026. You can avoid depot fees by holding Comdirect’s own S&P All World ETF, but that’s like getting a discount on a restaurant meal in exchange for ordering the chef’s mystery special. The existing ETF offering and cost structure concerns reveal exactly why customers are skeptical of these “free” products.
Trading Places: The Gettex Prison
Pure Depot’s biggest limitation isn’t in the app, it’s in the market structure. All trades execute exclusively through Gettex, the Munich-based trading venue operated by Baader Bank. This creates two immediate problems:
- Single point of failure: If Gettex has technical issues, you’re locked out. No alternative exchanges, no flexibility.
- Limited price discovery: Gettex liquidity is decent but can’t match the breadth of XETRA or international exchanges.
Neobrokers like Trade Republic face similar restrictions, but they’ve built their entire infrastructure around this limitation. Comdirect, with its parent Commerzbank’s resources, looks like it’s cutting corners rather than optimizing for the constraint. The partnership with Baader Bank benefits the market maker more than the end customer, a fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed by informed investors tracking the brokerage account incentives and competitive tactics in Germany.
The Support Mirage: When 24/7 Actually Means Something
Comdirect’s main differentiator is round-the-clock telephone support. In a world where Trade Republic users have been locked out for weeks with only digital support, this seems like a genuine advantage. But there’s a catch: the quality of that support matters more than its availability.
Early adopters report that Pure Depot’s support staff are essentially reading from the same scripts as the main depot team. Having someone pick up the phone at 11 PM is worthless if they can’t resolve issues beyond “try restarting the app.” The gap between availability and competency is where neobrokers save money and traditional banks pretend to compete.
The Regulatory Time Bomb
Here’s the spicy part: Pure Depot launches just as the EU’s Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) ban prepares to reshape the entire neobroker landscape. The regulatory changes threatening neo-broker pricing models will force Trade Republic and Scalable Capital to find new revenue streams or raise prices.
Comdirect’s €1 flat fee looks sustainable because it’s backed by a full-service bank’s infrastructure. But is it? The Baader Bank partnership suggests Comdirect is still relying on payment for order flow-style economics, just disguised better. When the regulatory hammer drops, Pure Depot might need its own price hike, leaving customers exactly where they started.
Who Actually Needs This?
Let’s be brutally honest: Pure Depot makes sense for exactly one group, first-time investors who trust brand names more than fintech startups. If you’re a 23-year-old who finds Trade Republic’s neon aesthetic suspicious and wants the comfort of a established bank’s name on your depot statement, Pure is your product.
For everyone else, the calculation is murkier:
– Experienced investors will miss derivatives, second depots, and professional tools
– Cost optimizers will find better deals at Smartbroker+ or Flatex
– Existing Comdirect customers feel penalized for their loyalty
The growing retail investment trend among younger Germans shows that new investors prioritize simplicity and cost above all. Pure delivers on cost but wraps it in a traditional banking mentality that might feel like a straitjacket to digital natives.
The Verdict: Evolution or Extinction?
Comdirect’s Pure Depot isn’t a failure, it’s just five years too late. The product would have been revolutionary in 2021. In 2026, it’s a competent me-too offering that solves its parent company’s strategic dilemma (how to compete with neobrokers without destroying legacy revenue) while creating a new one (how to explain to loyal customers why they’re second-class citizens).
The real test isn’t whether Pure can attract new users. It’s whether Comdirect has the stomach to eventually migrate its entire depot business to this pricing model. Until that happens, Pure remains what cynical investors call it: a “customer acquisition funnel with banking lipstick.”
For now, the smart money says: open Pure if you’re a true beginner who values phone support, but keep your existing depot at a real discount broker if you actually care about long-term costs and flexibility. And if you’re already a Comdirect customer? Call them and demand the Pure pricing on your classic depot. When they refuse, you’ll know exactly how much your loyalty is worth.
Bottom line: Comdirect finally built a neobroker product, then immediately proved why traditional banks struggle with disruption. They want the cool kids’ market share without giving up their old kids’ profits. In the end, they might lose both.
