The boring reply: there’s almost certainly no value in merging - at a guess, I imagine there’s a really significant overlap in account holders (>50%?) and each other’s technology is duplicative…
Idea for another thread though - in this hypothetical world, what features/approaches/ways of doing business would you keep from each? 
That’ll be one heck of a question in a year or so…
Interesting, isn’t it? Given that we know they basically come from the same place, it’s fascinating seeing different choices and approaches…
It is.
On an earlier subject, with NatWest winning the best app award, I can only assume the NatWest customers who voted have never seen what an instant notification looks like 
. That would put the cat amongst the pigeons…
Don’t know what one looks like
They probably don’t know how to find a bank that provides one
What I do know is that when opening an account with them recently they did push very hard to get customers to provide feedback on their services
I reckon the only reason why the App won was because of it’s “Get Cash” feature. I’ve got the RBS version of the same app and it doesn’t even list “Pending Transactions” - I have to rely on my memory until a few days later when they appear in the list of transactions. Overall the App is nothing special at all.
I always quite liked NatWest app…anyway they seemed pleased…
Maybe it’s the best legacy banking app out there but the bar is so low I’m not sure there’s anything to be proud of. 
Sometimes I wonder what do the people responsible for the apps (product managers, etc) actually think of their awful creations, and whether they’ve seen the real best banking apps (Monzo, Starling, Revolut, Monese, etc) and know how bad their product is in comparison, or if they’re actually oblivious and seriously think theirs is the best.
Recently I saw a friend opening their Lloyd’s Bank app (for their new credit card), the app took a good minute to load. My suspicion is that it was one of those packaged web-apps (Apache Cordova/PhoneGap) and it was actually downloading the entire app’s HTML/CSS, JavaScript and assets on each launch - I can’t imagine anything else would require 1 minute of constant network activity on a 4G connection.
Monese may not be a bank but give me their app over the RBS app any day!
They for sure know, but legacy infrastructure and lengthy change processes means they can’t get anything out faster. Resiliency issues lately from certain providers is also likely impacting any substantial changes. Too many stakeholders to keep at bay. They’ve invested a lot in their current apps and now the industry has pivoted to modular architectures and open APIs which requires almost reversing everything they’ve done until now, probably even starting from scratch. Maybe they knew a lot earlier this was happening, but how do you convince seniors to invest without knowing greater certainty of market direction - too risky. Therein lies the problem.
Lloyds are planning an app makeover (p.22), and I predict it’s a big one with the £3bn investment they’re pledging towards digital.
Anyway, regardless, they do need to move quicker. I’m finally making an official move to Monzo from my big bank 
(edited as per MIROW’s comment)
HSBC also gives the option when sending money from a U.K. account to a foreign account. You have the option to send GBP (so the receiving banks gets GBP and does the conversion to local currency) or do the conversion at HSBC side (it shows the fx that will be used) and the receiving bank gets the already converted money.
@anon44204028
Richard why do you like Monese so much
I’ve got the account and app but just can’t bring myself to use it
There is an account in GBP and EUR, I have sortcode and account number plus IBAN, I can send and receive SCT (SEPA payments), It has SDD (SEPA Direct Debits) as well as DD (BACS Direct Debits), it has great customer service, and I can deposit cash at PayPoint and Post Offices…It may be an emoney institution rather than a bank, but I prefer it to any bank at present (particularly when essentials like SCT missing)
Would you then use this as your main banking account within the uk or as an additional bank that has all those facilities of payments and transfers ?
I would be happy to use it as my main UK account in place of my regular Private Banking account (which does have SCT transfers and IBAN) and I do appreciate that it has funds ringfenced like the Monzo prepaid did rather than the €100,000/£85,000 protections banks have under European Regs.
PS: I had originally envisaged Monzo becoming my main account, but lack of SCT and them wishing to charge over 1 or 2% for cash withdrawals in the EU made me reconsider that (I rarely use ATMs abroad and use POS, but the combination of a free allowance and overcharging above that I object to - there should be no allowance and people pay fairly, less in Europe and more outside Europe). I still support Tom’s vision and plan to retain Monzo as a supplementary account.
I’m still trying to gather data on which is best for me
I’m also a little against paying charges or fees
I want the ability to have an account that provides the best for me in both UK and abroad
I dont want to have to constantly check which offers the best money transfer rate or charges the least for withdrawing funds abroad
But at the same time I need straight forward banking for bills and DD etc
I guess that I just need to keep looking and observing
Sooner or later, Monzo will be launching their TransferWise integration, which in my experience offers the best rates for international transfers.
There was an incident where the TransferWise UI was made available in the app accidentally, so I don’t think it will be long.
Funny that the TW team have just popped up here, with what looks like a dedicated group / title too 
That certainly would help the situation
I do have a transfer wise account and card