Then that was a gross waste of time, resources, and money, as Revolut have proved you don’t need a banking license to become this. I would be peeved as an investor if Monzo acquired a banking license for any reason other than becoming a bank.
In fact, if I recall back to the time they were just a landing page, becoming a bank was the promise of their proposition. In fact they use the term bank on four of the five tag lines. Nowhere is it mentioned they’re going to be a financial hub. They very clearly thought of themselves as a bank, and still do.
Oh, and they wouldn’t have kept making a point of referring to themselves as a bank in their only televised advert either.
Perhaps if Monzo hadn’t always been so persistent on being a bank, we wouldn’t be all hung up about it.
To help you do that, our goal is to build a financial control centre, a single hub that you can use to manage your entire financial life. In order to give you access to the best products and services from across the market, we believe that hub should be a marketplace.
I can’t remember the % but a high number of people don’t change gas/electric suppliers and just pay a lot more a month when you have zero hassle ways of switching. People are lazy!
Worth noting that’s a blog post from 2017, and wasn’t mentioned as part of their vision on their initial product landing page from 2015, which was my point, that it wasn’t mentioned on that landing page.
I’ve been following Monzo since day one, and this aspect of their vision wasn’t something I became aware of until after they became a bank.
Maybe it always was their vision, but it’s not something they pushed in the most visible way, or in their marketing. They just keep calling themselves a bank.
I suspect it’s only well known with this niche community of members, but outside of us, not really.
The fact is, if you’re gonna get a banking licence (and become an actual bank), then you do both your customers and your investors a disservice if you offer a poorer service, or paywall features that your peers offer for free.
This is an inescapable fact about Monzo - you can say whatever you like about their qualities as a financial hub - but as a bank, they’re inferior to pretty much all of their competitiion.
Mondo is the latest UK digital bank to gain a licence as the number of smartphone lenders gathers pace… The bank is working with other providers so that it can act as a hub giving access to a range of financial services.
I may be wrong here, but possibly part of the reason why people still do not realise Monzo is actually a bank is down to their branding.
Think of any other bank and their marketing:
Lloyds - “Lloyds Bank”
Nat West - “Nat West Bank”
Even Starling - “Starling Bank”
Monzo has always just been known as Monzo, and maybe without seeing the actual word Bank many people just don’t actually realise.
NatWest, aren’t called NatWest Bank. To give them their real name, they’re National Westminster Bank, which is shortened to “NatWest”.
Also, Barclays, one of the largest banks isn’t called Barclays Bank – additionally some other banks not featuring the word bank - Santander, Halifax, First Direct, Nationwide.
I’d argue against your reasoning here really, and don’t agree that the omission of the word “bank” is why people aren’t aware Monzo’s a full bank.
Another possibility is that “Mondo” marketed itself as a prepaid card, and has never really shaken that image.
Trying to understand people’s perceptions is not something I would even try to do.
How many times have we all heard Revolut referred to as a “bank”?
In all their marketing, branding, website, naming etc. They refer to themselves as “Barclays”.
This is what we’re referring to, not what the company is registered as at companies house (otherwise we’d be arguing over the addition of PLC too etc.)
You argue that NatWest Bank is actually National Westminster Bank and it’s been shortened and is known as NatWest.
And you’re correct.
Then you argue that Barclays is not Barclays Bank at all. And when shown that it is, you say it’s to do with marketing and is shortened to Barclays. (But my point remains. It is Barclays Bank)
You’re having your cake and eating it on this one.
I’ve always known them as Barclays Bank. Indeed it was Barclays Bank and marketed as such for a long time. The ‘Barclays’ thing for marketing themselves is somewhat more recent. Perhaps you’re younger than I and don’t remember it being Barclays Bank?
All of which digresses from the discussion about Monzo and it’s ability to shake the prepaid card image and market themselves as a bank.
Oh come on. Barclays has been a bank for over 300 years, NatWest for decades. They are the traditional (in Barclays’s case, international) banks which Monzo doesn’t resemble, so of course people recognise them as such without the word ‘bank’ appended.
To follow on from @j06, because they are absolutely right in that barclays don’t need to use the term bank when branding or marketing themselves anymore, as they’ve been around long enough to become synonymous.
But any formal communications I get from Barclays, they call themselves Barclays Bank. That’s on bank statements, emails, letters, even the default name of the current account is Barclays Bank Account.
I’ve noticed Monzo start to subtly move in that direction recently too. Their website used to just call it a Monzo account. Now they’ve specifically added the word bank in there. Monzo are clearly trying to get the message out there that their product is a bank account, it’s either just not catching on, or people just don’t care, because they don’t need or want it to be a bank. It’s up for debate whether this is an issue for them or not though. I think it is, in part due to the recent fees and limits, and the recent numbers on average deposits.
If their 4 million customers treated and used them like a bank account, I don’t think revenue would be as pressing a concern as it currently is.
