Monzo is clearly doing a great job with 370k user base. If it listed early next year this would be great publicity, show potential customers it is a serious and safe business and would snatch the initiative from its rivals.
It would probably secure it 2 million customers by end of 2018 as more people would feel secure using them as a listed bank.
Way too soon for that I think. Showing sustained growth and converting prepay to main current account customers alongside making a success of what is a pretty unique strategy to make money from big data etc will need to be shown as not just the current trendy idea. Also it would totally be selling a company with exceptional potential on the cheap for a a bit of publicity that isnât needed!
So my understanding is that ânewâ bank, Atom Bank, is actually being headed by someone(s) from legacy bank backgrounds. Sounds like it is doomed to fail in the new fin tech arena before it starts. I wonder how many legacy ideas are already being subconsciously embedded.
Atom won the initial PR round, a couple of years ago when fintech was in its infancy. No one else had heard of Tandem, Mondo and Starling, and Atom got a lot of press precisely because it was a couple of guys from First Direct and Metro doing âa bank on a smartphoneâ.
Since then Atom have brought zero innovation to the sector. Yes they launched market-leading savings and mortgages, but their USP on the savings was being able to show you what interest youâd earn until you cashed it in, hardly rocket science with a fixed-term account. Their app is a UI nightmare as everyone knows, and no-one knows what will.i.am brings to the table; if Atom even know theyâve done nothing to tell the rest of the world.
They werenât prepared for banking innovation regulations they must have know weâre being introduced, and I agree with the poster above when they commented it was probably conceived as a legacy bank through an app, a bit like B Bank.
I think a takeover is going to come sooner rather than later from BBVA if they want to be even closer to Atom Bank, they currently own 29.5% of the bank