It looks like BS to me - they have other problems and are hiding behind ‘complex regulation’
One problem is of course how much their app sucks!
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Yeah, I suspected as much. I’d be interested to hear from Monzo regarding this, particularly as Monzo will be relying heavily on overdraft fees to maintain ‘free banking’.
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I expect it’s the punitive fees (which Monzo won’t charge) that will be under scrutiny, charging interest on loans isn’t exactly a new practise!
This also works on mobile browsers
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It would be excellent to hear a commentary from Monzo on this, but I suspect they might not want to show their cards just yet. Either way, it’s concerning news. A strong challenger bank landscape is surely good for everyone?
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Atom will be back in 2018??
I doubt it
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I was at a fintech discussion with @tom about a year ago and he was promoting the benefits of creating his ‘full stack’ bank from the ground up (Starling have also done this), as opposed to buying one off the shelf (Tandem and Atom are in this category).
It’s interesting that these latter two banks have both delayed their current account launches, and I wonder if the need to raise a lot of capital early on and the agility provided by coding your own systems has had a bearing on Starling and Monzo’s fitness to launch.
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It’s the “surprised” be regulation and not having an API strategy baked in from day 1 that’s so shocking
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Challenger bank Shawbrook rejected a ‘final’ £868 million takeover bid
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This is big news strategically… another horse dropping out of the race. Atom was planning to be the best of everything and current accounts were at the top of the list, but it has slowly realised that their platform cant compete and is slotting into it’s position of dumb pipe balance sheet offering a cheaper back end to service traditional products - just like all the other ones.
Saying you can’t launch a new product because of some regulation that benefits new entrants is nuts. They are probably just trying to buy stuff off the shelf and scared it will be incompatible in a year or two and they’ll be stuck with a steaming pile. It seems full stack has already won vs off the shelf. Now there are just a couple of runners left in the U.K. and the race has yet to even begin according to tom blom! Only one winner here! 
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If monzo aren’t planning on high interest savings accounts short term, Atom married well with Monzo. I like this
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I received Revolut’s May Round-Up email with details of their partnership with Trussle & also, PensionBee (pension management) and user’s useage of Bricklane (£230,000 invested in 2 months).
Since it doesn’t look like they’ve posted this as a blog too, here’s the email.
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Looks like Starling and Monzo will be the only two consumer players this year in the UK and the first mover advantage in the market will accrue to them. Like anything, as Monzo keeps growing it will have something of a network effect that others will struggle to emulate.
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Revolut have just launched their device (aka mobile phone) insurance which is apparently cheaper than the mobile network provider’s (based on European prices) -
http://news.revolut.com/post/161471555957/introducing-revolut-device-insurance
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Revolut have sent out an invite to gauge interest for £4 million crowd funding - sent to premium members
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I wish they would proof read and spell Vodafone correctly!!
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