I thought I’d share some of the background behind the details in this story -
the “Starling Pulse,” a real-time feed that displays all your account activity.
I wonder where they got that name from 
“We decided to go straight to build the full current account rather than go on a side trip to build a pre-paid card first,” Starling Bank founder Anne Boden told me in a call yesterday
Given that Starling had a head start (most of the original Monzo team left Starling to start Monzo) & Monzo’s due to launch the current accounts within the next couple of months, developing the pre-paid functionality doesn’t seem to have slowed Monzo down.
It has enabled Monzo to attract more than 10x as many users, who’re engaged & have provided lots of feature suggestions for Monzo to build…
Also, I think that one of the great things about the Monzo team is they don’t make these kinds of comments about the other challenger banks. It sounds a bit defensive.
“Plus lots more things we can do because we built our technology ourselves.”
As Anne knows, 95% of Monzo’s software is built on in house & they’ll be dropping GPS (reportedly their processor) & Wirecard, when they launch the current accounts later this year so it’s almost impossible that Starling’s ahead in this area.
Also -
[You’re] asked to provide a 6-10 digit passcode [to secure the app]
Android beta to follow at the end of the month