Competitor Update 2

It’s for that user they call in-house by the F word :joy:

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Well, this outage has produced some news, Revolut moving their processing in house too -

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I wonder how bringing this function in-house will increase reliability. After all, I assume GPS are dedicated to that function. Or is it that doing so will at least put the solution to an outage into the hands of the bank?

There’s a few benefits - if something goes wrong, Monzo has control of fixing it, during that time they have full visibility of what’s going on so they can keep customers up to date & frankly, it’s hard to see how they could do a much worse job :disappointed:

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Yes. Point taken. Interesting to know why this process is outsourced in the first place.

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It took Monzo over a year to get their processor set up IIRC it took about a year for Monzo to become a certified MasterCard which would obviously be a pretty big hurdle for startups that want to get up & running quickly.

Does anyone know what it means to be a card “processor”? Is it just receiving messages from MasterCard with transaction data and responding yes/no depending on whether there’s money in the account?

bunq have just brought out their premium account (€ like their basic account) and the Mastercard Debit card has no CCV on the back, instead it has a revolving CCV in the app

They also have an option for a second card on the account, which handy for a partner or to lend to your child

Here’s the full details from that announcement -

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Only issue with CCV in app is you might run into a chicken and egg situation, as you might be unable to purchase internet access in a foreign country (think: Wifi hotspot in hotel, airport) without the CCV code, but you will need an internet connection to get your CCV :thinking:

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Maybe users can get ‘one time’ cvv code/s - I didn’t see any remark like it in article that Alex linked, but maybe that’s their future solution to question you asked. So, one time cvv codes can be only used one time, but are not changing every 5 mins. It’s usual solution for 2FA, like authenticator app and backup codes for it. :thinking:

It’s also about more than just reliability. Bringing it in-house will allow features that just aren’t possible with an outsourced processor.

And in that thread, I had the same question as Andre above:

Daniel kindly provided a diagram to show how the components fit together (click the :arrow_down_small: to see the graphic):

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As above! Reliability and the ability to develop completely new innovative features. We are super proud of our team and all the work that’s gone into building a processor from the ground up.

We firmly believe that to offer a completely new experience, you have to build and own the whole stack. So whilst the Beta has been great and we’ve learned huge amounts from it, relying on third parties was never part of our long term plan.

This is a huge part of what will define us in the future, in my opinion.

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Tridos Bank are going to charge £3 a month for their new ethical current account

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N26 will not respond to me on the question of “how many users do you have?”. I wonder if anyone knows how I can find out their number of users if they won’t tell? In Jan 2016 they announced 100k after a year of launch, then 300k in Mar 2017 (average ~466 users a day), then no announcements since. Is it logical to assume their growth curve has gone more horizontal like Revolut’s since imposing fees and charges - as surely they would have made a fanfare about hitting 500k if 300k merits a song and dance? Looking on their website now they even talk of a charge about to land of €34.80 a year just for having a basic mastercard. Who is going to do that when there are other options which don’t charge €34.80? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

It boggles the mind because if I recall correctly it was only earlier this year that Tom said N26 are about a year ahead of Monzo in terms of growth, but as it stands half way through the year Monzo seems about to overtake them on user numbers (as mentioned this is just educated guess work without confirmation of their actual number). When it does happen I’m sure it will be a real fist pump moment for Tom because throughout many of his early conferences he had to play second fiddle to N26’s Valentin Stalf because N26 were always further ahead with users and features and monzo was more of a concept. It is becoming clear now which model is more likely to be successful in hitting the mainstream.

Here’s a blast from the past (May 2016) when N26 had ~100k users and Monzo had 1.5k
Valentin Stalf @ Paris Fintech Forum 2016
Tom Blomfield @ Paris Fintech Forum 2016

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Interesting read about African fintechs:

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N26 replied 3 days later saying they have “over 300k users” (300k 5 months ago). They have been available in 17 countries that whole time! :poop:

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300K users in 17 countries?

:joy:

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Tandem is buying Harrods bank

:eyes: well that’s surprising, do you have a link to a news article about that by any chance?