Rethinking the Marketplace / Integration with other services

[Dan5 (Dan)]

That just makes the challenge even more fun

[PaulUK]

Sadly, I cannot recall the last time I was excited by a Monzo release

All the hype building up to each of the recent releases has turned into , for me, when product seen.

Each to their own though.

Guess my Monzo account does just what I want it to at the moment, so perhaps my expectations are non-existent, thereby nothing to fulfil

Not into micro-managing my financial spend any more. My expenditure is always less than my income.

Perhaps the pandemic has just numbed my wishes and wants for the time-being.

[Dan5 (Dan)]

I wish we could develop something exciting for everybody, but sadly we have to prioritise

[ndrw (A judgemental prick)]

@PaulUK

All the hype building up to each of the recent releases has turned into , for me, when product seen.

Each to their own though.

Guess my Monzo account does just what I want it to at the moment, so perhaps my expectations are non-existent, thereby nothing to fulfil

Not into micro-managing my financial spend any more. My expenditure is always less than my income.

I agree with this. I have just been feeling with all the latest releases. I don’t need to get paid early; I don’t want the types of insurance on offer and I don’t need to budget. I have always lived quite frugally so my income more than covers my expenses and I can’t cut down on expenses any more (unless Monzo magically gets itemised receipts for Tesco and tells me I spend too much on fancy bread and should buy a Tesco loaf instead). What I’d love is better connected account support, and to be able to track my net worth with real-time integrations with investments, savings and loans.

Oh and to see chat return to everyone, 24/7

[Peter_G]

@N26throwaway

The aspect of this that got me, should this be a route they go down is the future of KYC. If the market heads in the direction you’re thinking, having Monzo as the single KYC processor, could be game-changing, and not just for banking, as the uses could extend far beyond. There’s a precedent here though that would require caution, and darn good privacy policy to work well for customers.

I forgot to come back on this earlier! I’m sorry if I wasn’t precise, but I definitely don’t think that Monzo as a single KYC processor for the industry is good or desirable.

I was trying to say more that the platform model could / should mean that the platform holds KYC. And passes it onto others or vouches somehow for an identity. I’d hope there would be more than one platform, otherwise monopoly issues apply.

I was being a bit expansive in my thinking about Sign In With Monzo. We know that the world is rapidly digitising, yet there are still times folk need additional proof of identity online - this is why the government is consulting on a digital identity and attributes trust framework.

The potential vision here would be to look to Monzo as a digital identity provider. That could help with both the KYC issues for account opening referenced above (indeed, it might be the only way to do it in the future), and also potentially open up other revenue streams - ideally, a pay per identity verified model, not a data aggregation and sales model.

Does that make more sense?

[Peter_G]

@Dan5

For the record the idea of being able to see your ‘financial life’ in Monzo is definitely not dead. We wouldn’t have spent time developing connected accounts (& we wouldn’t have lots of plans in place to develop them ) if it wasn’t.

Thanks Dan - that’s reassuring!

The cynic in me wonders whether it’s because of real drive and vision in this area - or because it’s a nice revenue generator for paid accounts. But I suppose it can be both (or neither, actually) as long as I enjoy and value the product.

@Dan5

Also, next time TS does a Q&A at All Hands I’ll ask him if he wants to come say hello on the community on your behalf!

Thank you! I think it’d be a lovely touch. Perhaps we could do a coral-crew hosted interview session?!

[BritishLibrary (Ben)]

@ndrw

I don’t need to budget.

… I can’t cut down on expenses any more

I do think this is a problematic factor in how Monzo is/has tackled budgeting - and one I hope gets done differently in the future (and I’ve said lots of that in the dedicated “make budgeting better” thread).

But I think it’s a shame that, in the Monzo universe, “Budgeting” has almost become synonymous with “cutting down costs” or “saving money”, when in reality it could open more doors for more users as “Making a plan for my money”, which is so much more interesting and empowering, IMO.

[N26throwaway (Sir Tom MacMonier)]

@Peter_G

Does that make more sense?

Sort of! The government looking into digital ID solutions was where I was drawing inspiration from too!

I’d just like a system, where I’d only need to go through the KYC process once with Monzo, then once done, Monzo can just vouch for me when signing up for something else. I think we’re both thinking of the same thing, just explaining it differently.

Done right, I think there would be good privacy benefits for such a model (I.E. not having to send electronically send photos of my passport to dozens of different companies to entrust with protecting), but done wrong, and it could be dreadful for privacy. There’s been quite a bit of backlash from industry experts on the government proposals for proving ID online.

[Peter_G]

@BritishLibrary

But I think it’s a shame that, in the Monzo universe, “Budgeting” has almost become synonymous with “cutting down costs” or “saving money”, when in reality it could open more doors for more users as “Making a plan for my money”, which is so much more interesting and empowering, IMO.

Yes, exactly this!

Apologies if this sounds a bit pompous, but the words we choose for things often our parameters of thought. That’s why I got a bit caught up over here with terminology about what we call Monzo (and why all new starters at Monzo should have it drummed into them they’re building a finance-hub).

As you say, we need to think carefully about the Budget word. I really like the “making a plan for my money” line instead.

[Peter_G]

@N26throwaway

I’d just like a system, where I’d only need to go through the KYC process once with Monzo, then once done, Monzo can just vouch for me when signing up for something else. I think we’re both thinking of the same thing, just explaining it differently.

Excellent, I think we’re violently agreeing!

It’s really a topic in its own right, but it struck me as one of the things that would be necessary but not sufficient for the sort of thing I was imagining: sophisticated digital identity (or KYC) that could open additional accounts + advanced API with hooks for instant notifications and stuff that’s not in open banking =

[ndrw (A judgemental prick)]

Yes, I really agree, and this is why I want it to be a full financial hub. So it could give me tips - do I pay off my loan first by overpaying, or put the money in a 0.5% interest savings account? How would my finances be impacted if I did one or the other? And so on

[Peter_G]

@Dan5

There is a huge amount of work that goes into onboarding different suppliers, and sometimes we get quite far into the process and for whatever reason it falls through. There are also ongoing commercial relationships to manage, which also take time.

Thanks, Dan - that does sound like a difficult overhead to manage.

I suppose, put another way, I was looking at how to commoditise or take the heat out of all of that from a Monzo perspective. You need to get to a self-sustaining platform (or flourishing garden) without spending all of your time watering the plants. I suppose I was trying to envisage how to get there (and why I thought that savings pots might actually be too deep an integration).

[Peter_G]

@ndrw

Yes, I really agree, and this is why I want it to be a full financial hub. So it could give me tips - do I pay off my loan first by overpaying, or put the money in a 0.5% interest savings account? How would my finances be impacted if I did one or the other? And so on

This is exactly where we need to get to!

The thing I don’t know - and I’m keen for insight on - is when does this approach the FCA definition of financial advice and therefore falls into a different regulation category? I’d worry a bit if that was holding things back - I think as things move on there will need to be a different approach to regulating this sort of thing. It’s important to protect the customer, but also to make sure that regulation remains contemporary.

[Revels]

@BritishLibrary

But I think it’s a shame that, in the Monzo universe, “Budgeting” has almost become synonymous with “cutting down costs” or “saving money”, when in reality it could open more doors for more users as “Making a plan for my money”, which is so much more interesting and empowering, IMO.

It’s easier to spend less. It’s tougher to work out how to spend better.

[BritishLibrary (Ben)]

I totally agree with your view of ‘constrained thinking’, hadn’t seen your linked comment but that fits the sentiment perfectly.

And if I take it a step further, to my second favourite thing to say about Monzo: Sooner or later, the user base will “mature out” of the offering Monzo has.

There’s a relationship there between the age and needs of it’s Average Consumer^. As the users needs evolve beyond “spending card”, with investment products, mortgages, insurances, etc, I expect a large portion will move away from Monzo to banks with greater connectivity to those offerings.

[davidwalton (Hot Coral Analyst)]

I’d like to see the ‘hub’ too.

The founders, at least one of them, wanted the hub as a centre of what Monzo should be. But as becoming a full-on bank took its toll, almost all of them have spun off. And replaced by experienced traditional banking leaders which indirectly introduces legacy baggage and at times it seems like Monzo has already morphed from a disruptor into a, erm…, regular bank.

The back-end tech still stands out as beyond the competition, and with extra innovative thinking, it could deliver what a lot of people need.

I really hope the early groundwork is built on properly to take Monzo forward quickly. Year-in-Monzo is a snapshot of what is possible - make this a real-time forward/backward data-fetch and the framework for forecasting and/or budgeting is possible - especially with Open Banking connections

PS> Thanks @Peter_G for another cracking topic for discussion

[Dan5 (Dan)]

@Peter_G

suppose, put another way, I was looking at how to commoditise or take the heat out of all of that from a Monzo perspective. You need to get to a self-sustaining platform (or flourishing garden) without spending all of your time watering the plants. I suppose I was trying to envisage how to get there (and why I thought that savings pots might actually be too deep an integration).

I think you partially hit the nail on the head with the KYC checks. As I understand it then it’s not possible to just ‘passport’ those checks between one provider to another, at least not easily.

What we might do for our KYC might be different to another provider with a different risk appetite, or might not allow them to come to a sufficient decision. For example say institution X doesn’t do CIFAS checks but institution Y requires them, or institution A does proof of address checks against credit reference agencies but institution B doesn’t like that method and prefers checks against electoral roll then how do you resolve that?

Do you start doing retrospective KYC checks, or does the partnership institution do them? If you do them, then if one customer is outside of the partners risk appetite then does the hosting institution exit their relationship with that customer, or do they just not offer the product?

If they just don’t offer the product, then what do they tell that customer? They can’t tell them they’re too risky for the partner institution, because that could leave them open for an accusation of tipping off. So when the customer complains that some customers get better deals than others

It’s a minefield…

(All the above is theoretical by the way - I can neither confirm nor deny what sort of KYC checks we do )

[Krzysztofp (Krzysztof Dariusz pietryka)]

No good monzo bank no

[aCCount]

@N26throwaway

You’re a real asset to this community and these types of posts spark some real interesting discourse, forming the basis of a sounding board for ideas, many of which go on to sound really appealing.

Absolutely +1 for this

@Peter_G

The Future?

Financial services are becoming commoditised . I think we’ll end up seeing apps that provide the customer experience, then a whole bunch of different savings (and current account) providers. But they’ll be a bit like electricity suppliers - they all do the same thing, so it’s just inertia or cost that keeps you with the same provider.

@Peter_G

What does that all mean to me as a user?

• Basically, you’d have loads of products in the Monzo app that you could open with one click.

This sounds like a mess to me. Why would I want loads of options that all offer the same thing?

The marketplace is only going to be interesting if it offers a range of different products. There’s no appeal in marketplace that offers the same products under 40 different names.

There might be a place for monzo handling the front of house services, and letting other suppliers handle the back end, but - if the back end services are all the same - monzo need only partner with one supplier.

Customers want simplicity, “it just works,” etc. I’m not sure a commoditised marketplace offers that at all.