But seem to be doing well in offering a wider range of products than Monzo
Don’t understand why Monzo in my opinion did not prioritize revenues from the start. That’s basic economics in order to thrive - it seems to me they think plus and premium is enough while they are waiting on card transactions to pick up again
https://www.cityam.com/atom-bank-valuation-set-to-halve-after-latest-fundraising-round/
Monzo was never envisaged to be a savings and loans company though. Yes, OK, that might have changed, but the management only changed relatively recently and these things take time.
I agree with what you are saying just very frustrating that the previous management had such a wrong business plan at the start in my opinion eg starting a bank and trying not to be a bank at the same time
what do you think Monzo should do more of to raise its revenues ?
They have loans , Overdrafts, Business accounts , Premium accounts tiers ,energy switch referrals , fixed interest account referral fees , they get the same interchange fees as other banks without the infrastructure costs, what else do you suggest, insist everybody has a paid for account , make people spend more ?
I think you will see good progress in the next financial statements despite covid, its not like a light switch being turned on , one day loss, next day change management …profit … 
But you didn’t think it was wrong at the time since you invested
Record revenue during a pandemic is a good sign, no?
Monzo didn’t “start a bank” though.
Originally the founders wanted to create an app which became the ‘Facebook of money’ and they decided getting a British banking licence was the best vector of attack.
Monzo had no desire to ‘be a bank’.
Yes, that may now be in the process of changing, building a profitable, but different business. But you can’t cry that they just didn’t go into savings and mortgages like every other digital bank at the time. It was probably the very fact that Atom is an extremely boring company, now worth a lot less, for offering ‘bank stuff’. I mean, Atom is just First Direct/Metro but with a better different app.
There were many early day open office events which discussed the vision. The banking license was part of the business model but not all
OK Appreciate that they have made decent progress recently BUT in 2016 they seemed like something new and exciting but in my opinion they then concentrated too much on vanity - “look how many customers we have”
this went against basic economics when they knew how much each customer costed them.
If they had realized early on that
a. They are a bank not a hub (otherwise why apply for a banking license)
B. They need to make money / profit to survive
Monzo would now be in a much better place
other banks had prioritized business banking from the start - which meant they had a longer track record when applying for Banking Grants from RBS and then again with the government Covid loans scheme
Starling, Atom and even Tide had already prioritized business banking and are now seeing benefits
Frustrated rant over
Fair point I will amend that to why they did not prioritize revenue earlier on
Ian I think the overdrafts and loans business is quite conservative at Monzo so it’s not going to generate massive revenue - same with plus and premium.
Business accounts and card transactions are the main revenue I think (correct me if wrong)
There was probably more than a little investor-friendly spiel here, I’d guess, but the fact is banking licence = bank. Simple as that.
I think every little bit of extra revenue adds up to a big bit of revenue , conservative with loans , hmmmm we will see how many go into default and then can talk about them being conservative , prudent or gung ho I suppose when we have the benefit of hindsight
I guess they are thinking of this particular story:
https://www.fintechfutures.com/2019/10/payexpo-2019-im-not-so-sure-we-should-have-become-a-bank-says-monzo-coo/
Always read to me like the personal opinion of one person, no longer with the business, than any overarching strategy. He became COO in late 2017 (and left within two years), so not clear he would have been much of part of the initial decision anyway given it completed by 2017
Pretty sure Monzo would have gone out of business this past year if it weren’t for the fact they were a bank and had started some lending.
They’ve already admitted they were slow to get overdrafts and borrowing sorted. Now they have, plus 3rd party services (however small) plus business accounts and paid products, now they’ve survived the worst of Covid, they are very well placed to spring out of this mess when travel picks up properly again in the next few months.
They had some decent reserves and managed more investment, so maybe not out of business totally, but I certainly agree that the diversification away from just interchange really helped
Yes, I think that is right.
I do agree with the rest of @Ralph76’s post completely though.
Loving the folk on here who apparently know Monzo’s original business plan better than Tom Blomfield, whom I heard speak on the subject a couple of times at early Monzo events.
Tom was very specific. He envisaged a current account at the centre of a hub and spoke approach to finance, where customers were given access to others’ banking products, but Monzo not providing them itself. Hence why Monzo hasn’t just done savings and loans, like many here feel it should be. You can see vestiges of this approach in the savings pots, and open banking integrations with other accounts.
The current account meant getting a banking licence. Other providers wanted to do the same thing (think Emma and Yolt) but just using Open Banking.
Interesting how this seems to have ended up in an “all roads lead to Rome” kind of situation.
Monzo has now arguably arrived at something like this kind of original vision, but via an indirect route where it seemed (at least to us users, at times, with the focus on business accounts, etc) to be straying away from it until recently. And it is only fully realised if you subscribe to Monzo Plus or Premium.
Yolt, on the other hand, is becoming more like a bank as they now have an e-money spending card linked to their app - which is promoted as a way to help you visualise your discretionary spending and, in turn, help you save more. That is more than a little similar to Monzo’s initial pitch in customer appeal.
Revolut have also attempted to go after the financial hub model more recently after initially focusing on the foreign exchange element of their product, and now they are looking to become a bank too.
Dozens is doing something a little bit similar, but with more of a focus on the individual journey from (spendthrift) spender, to saver, to investor.
Starling and others are more traditional, either trying to be like traditional banks, but better and more digitally-focused (Starling) or focusing on niche markets and hoping to do well by using a digital experience as a selling point (Atom, Tandem, etc - with savings).
I claimed no such thing! 
Nor am I attemping to speak of Tom’s motivations.
It is legitimate, though to point out that the following two quotes are mutually incompatible:
I completely understand the nuance & difference between a “bricks & mortar” bank - a “bank” in the traditional sense, and what Monzo wanted to become. It’s also important to point out that you can’t have a banking license - and “be a bank” - without certain responsibilities and expectations that all banks have. Expectations both from the industry, and the customers!
I do think though, that this…idealism, for the want of a better word, that Monzo is something different to a normal bank, is also at the root of some of their failings.