This sounds more like the ClearScore approach, where ClearScore selects products that’re ‘suitable’ for me & then presents a list of options, for me to choose from.
Rather than the App Store approach, where I have access to a catalog of products to choose from & simply select the product that’s most suitable for me.
That concerns me because although ClearScore will say that choosing a suitable product means that they analyse my financial data to pick products that I’m eligible for & that will give me the appropriate credit limit etc. They can also factor in which products will earn them the highest referral fees, which products I am least likely to keep in the long term (they make money every time I switch) & maybe even, which products are likely to offer insufficient credit so I’ll upgrade sooner (but end up with more hassle).
Perhaps they’re not doing any of those things but my point is, they have commercial considerations & this curated approach - which takes away my visibility of / access to, all products - gives them the option not to offer the very best products for my particular needs & to offer the products that will make them the most money instead (a bit like the legacy banks).
I also don’t know how these products ended up in ClearScore’s catalog in the first place. But if companies have to bid to be part of it (or Monzo’s marketplace - as you’ve mentioned), then surely this could mean that a startup which doesn’t have the funds to place a high bid but which offers a superior product, ends up not being listed because a legacy company which has more funds but an inferior product can outbid them, for example?
Whereas the app store gives me a choice of all products & I simply select the product which is best for me…
I like the idea of Monzo suggesting products to me, based on my spending habits - “your peers save x amount per month on groceries if they shop at x, rather than y”. But I still want to be able to choose from any provider & any of their services.
I trust the people at Monzo but it’s a business that has to make money which can result in Tom’s pet hate - misaligned incentives. So I’d just prefer it if the marketplace was open & Monzo was completely neutral - this would make me trust Monzo more. It can simply take a portion of the revenue from every sale or something similar.
The last points I’ll make are that if a company has to bid to offer their product, then aren’t they less likely to risk investing in developing their integration with Monzo because they could end up being removed from the catalog before they make an ROI?
And isn’t Monzo creating a barrier to entry here, if businesses have to compete to offer their products in the marketplace, at a time when surely it wants as many partners as possible so that Monzo users have lots of solutions to choose from & are attracted to the store as a result?
Hopefully I’ve misinterpreted something or this just needs some clarification but what you’ve described doesn’t sound ideal…
For the record, I’m not suggesting that Apple is 100% neutral, when it comes to allowing apps to be published in it’s store but relatively speaking, this seems like the most open approach 