The problem is that offering them without friction will just continue to fuel the stupid paper-based legacy industry and nothing will change. The only way to force the legacy industry to change is to make it hard for people to get those papers and hopefully they will take the hint as more and more people avoid them for a competitor that doesn’t insist on paper.
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I requested a bank statement yesterday for the first time. After completing security requirement, I had a PDF statement 4 minutes later.
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That’s not always that easy, when the requesting party is HM Government, asking you to provide bank statements for the past 5 years, to prove you have actually lived here during this time (happened to me a few months ago). Which competitor should I have gone to? (because I always knew that this day would come one day, I always resisted the pressure to switch to paperless.)
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I think that if you’re not a British Citizen, the unfortunate reality is that you have to be more careful about products you use and switching around.
Same if you plan to buy a house or similar.
Hopefully open banking will improve this by allowing one to put together a more complete picture of their financial activities more easily, but unfortunately knowing the Home Office…
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My issue is with the attitude of “because I have no need for paper statements (or joint accounts, or app pins, or a dozen other things) noone else should have them.” that’s rather childish. Noone is asking those who don’t want them to file monthly paper statements, and keep them for the next decade in case the home office comes knocking one day. but why do you have a problem if I wish to do so?
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Personally, I don’t. I just want it to be by request and not something that can be automatic each month. Why? Because as long as it’s an option, there will be those who expect it (like the Home Office).
I understand the dilemma, trust me, I do. I have US Citizenship and until the day I renounce it, every account, every pound I earn, everything needs to be reported to the US government. It’s horrible - and I don’t earn nearly enough to ever owe them a cent!
Unfortunately, there’s financial products I can’t and don’t use. Some of them, they won’t do business with US Citizens (I’ve made my feelings on that well-known and won’t go on a tangent here), but others, I choose not to use because the filing requirements are too onerous for me to figure out. Possibly the worst example is the Lifetime ISA. That would be very beneficial for me, but I can’t begin to figure out what I’d need to report to the IRS related to it, and what, if any, US tax I’d owe.
So trust me, I understand needing something simple and reportable. Even once I complete my renunciation of US Citizenship, I like things simple. I know paper statements help simplify things for a lot of people - but PDFs are good enough for that.
I guess this is a long way of saying, I do really understand - I don’t have a problem with your wish, at all. But I have a problem with the system that has made that wish a need; and sometimes industry changes are needed to force change with systems.
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A simple button to “download PDF statement” would solve all of this. It looks like I’ll need statements at some point too, I’d rather print the ones I need from the app than hassle Cops for something that can be automated easily
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I think that’s coming, but it won’t solve everything. I don’t think the Home Office, for example, would be happy with home-printed PDFs without offset-print letterhead or a stamp or something.
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and Residency permit applications require 5 years of non-PDF statements
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Five years? I knew it was bad, but wow…
Because of the nature of my work, I have a lot of colleagues and friends who are immigrants, and I’m constantly hearing how bad it is, but every example I get given seems to outdo the last one…
It can be 3 it depends on nationality, duration of residency, marital status, etc.
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Still… wow. I’ve thought of moving to Canada, since I love Canada… but every time that thought enters my head, I remember all these stories!
Monzo, do you know what would be really cool? If you could find out some common requirements (e.g. five years of statements, stamped - or to account opening, whichever is shorter, since obviously no one has been with Monzo five years and won’t be for awhile); and have a single push button to get that printed and sent.
For example, lets say someone knows their lender wants one year of stamped statements. Have a push-button in app. Hit the button, wait a few days, and ta-da, an envelope with a year of stamped statements 
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I do like this idea, would you be willing to pay a fee for paper statements? Just out loud thinking.
Statements should just be signed with a secret key, verifiable by anyone with the public key, by using an online tool provided by Monzo. Would be a nice addition to the api.
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I love it, but I doubt the Home Office, mortgage lenders, etc would 
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Ooooh, sounds like that could be my new hackathon project 
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That’s what I was referring to further up. And the bank statements are the easy part… I sent almost 5 kg worth of paper to the home office. (Although that did have to cover three persons.)
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Dang… the worst part is they know most of that stuff anyway, and will know more with CRS, etc. So it feels more like making people jump through hoops for giggles rather than any real need…
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I’m just gonna quote one phrase out of this article, that really explains all the Home Office’s actions to me:
Home Office’s proprietary blend of indifference and incompetence.
When I read that I thought : that’s exactly it! (I could tell you dozens of stories to further underline this, but that would utterly derail this thread…)
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So to keep it on track, what services can banks offer that you think could help the process? I see so many people I care about struggling to stay here… highly-educated academics, I will add!