Spain I thought was quite crowded with neobanks.
But then the legacy banks in Spain are really, really bad.
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Looking at statistics for Gross household saving rate 2024, I now think Portugal or Italy is more likely than Poland. Same 
so easier to balance the books, similar culture to Spain which is the natural direction to expand, higher savings per household therefore easier to raise cash reserves for lending products. Italy has just given Revolut a huge fine, so that might give Monzo some advantage. Portugal also previously had an influx of digital nomads who would more likely take up Monzo than traditional banks.
Poland’s household savings is below Europe’s average, plus throwing in złoty could create too much complexity while recovering from US withdrawal.
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The main banks in Poland also have very good digital technology already. They have more features than Monzo and such offer here, such as Blik, and being able to pay for car parks and public transport all within the app
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Portugal is an excellent shout! At the risk of upsetting both the Portuguese and Irish (and potentially Spanish) the cultural differences between Portugal and Spain seem to be similar to the difference between the UK and Ireland, so Spain could be an excellent launchpad for the rest of the Iberian peninsula.
Interestingly, Monzo’s list of countries on its website is missing Germany, Austria and Greece:
I wonder if that’s intentional or whether they just don’t fancy German speaking nations (or are just hoping to pick up N26 after Monzo IPOs). Then there is Greece, but that’s probably for different reasons… 
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Don’t think N26 will deliver value as an acquisition. Too high AML risk.
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Yeah, there’s no need to buy N26. I’d really like to see Monzo raise £1bn and just got at the bigger EU countries in one go, rather than rolling out one or two a year. Revolut is already entrenched in a lot of these places so will take time to make the same impact as the UK you would expect.
Also gives Monzo some dry powder to keep building during any downturns (which may well be around the corner as we’re starting to see in data) - this should really be the major lesson learnt in Monzo’s growth journey given what happened during Covid. Revolut stole a march there.
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With expansion to Spain taking off, we’ll get some insights in the strategy over the following years 
Revolut ramped up a lot of customers using a more aggressive strategy and a mostly one-size-fits-all product. I’m curious how much Monzo will adapt to specific regions.
Revolut already has big numbers. On the other hand, if I look into my region, they didn’t break into the “proper bank” associations of people yet.
They’re mostly known by young people (as most fintechs start), specifically for low exchange costs etc. Their reputation took a bit of a hit because they abruptly changed their offering, cutting of perks that were specific reasons why people tried them.
So I’d expect them to have quite a bit of customers, but lower percentages using them as main bank (no proof, just my conclusions).
I’d expect Monzo to invest more into being viewed as a bank who understands the local needs.
Anybody from Spain on here? How the banking sector over there?
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