It’s 2022 and it’s time to think about the year ahead. Over here I offered some of my own predictions for the year …
… but it’s time to discover what the community thinks!
Two sets of polls for our collective delight: one to cover what we think will happen - and one to say what we want to happen.
I’ve based this broadly on my own predictions and some of the comments in that topic - but I’ve heavily edited them to make them more poll-able (that’s totally a word, right?). And I’ve tried to make them Plus/Premium neutral - so some of these might only end up being paid for, but I’ve tried to make the poll oblivious to that. I’ve also tried to stay away from more qualitative assessments (like customer support remaining poor). And, finally, this is broadly focussed on personal (and joint) UK current accounts, so sorry business and US folk - I just don’t know your products well enough.
Ready, set, happy new poll!
First up: Expectations
Remember, these aren’t things that you necessarily want to happen, they’re the things that you think will (probably) happen, by the end of 2022.
Part 1 - Monzo
Flex will fully launch
Ability to Flex non-Monzo transactions
Pay for Flex, and Monzo Plus and Premium, from Pots
Direct payments from Pots launched
Different time periods in Trends (e.g. weeks, years, custom)
Trends finds a way to segregate mandatory and discretionary spend
Budgeting moves to Trends (or somewhere else out of Summary)
Summary is retired
Notes, split bills, tabs and search for connected accounts
A proper web interface
Tablet apps (iPad / Android tablet)
Cheque imaging!
Native international transfers in the app (with an IBAN)
Android search reaches iOS parity
Enriched merchant data is updated / accurate again
Enriched merchant data is abandoned
No physical card by default (but can be ordered for free)
Pay in cash at the post office
Master feed, aggregating different accounts or pots in one feed
Removal of the blue buttons below the cards on the feed
Complete redesign of the app
Redesign of the transaction screen
Payments directly between Pots / connected accounts
A redesigned payments screen
Faster Payments in / out match your specified payee name
Overdrafts for joint accounts
Plus / Premium for joint accounts
Flex for joint accounts
Monzo offers stocks and shares (or other investment products)
Monzo offers crypto products
Full launch in the US
International (non-US) expansion
Monzo closes US operations
6m users!
7m users!!
FCA probe results in no action
FCA probe results in a manageable fine
FCA probe results in an existential crisis
Monzo will announce a profitable run rate
Monzo will announce overall profitability
Monzo will be acquired
Monzo will list publicly on a stock exchange
Monzo will acquire another firm
No one from the C suite will post on this forum
The CEO will post / do an AMA
Someone else from the C suite will post / do an AMA
One or more of the C suite will leave
A founder will leave
This forum will be closed again due to an ‘incident’
The forum will survive a year
@alandoe and @simonb will join forces to launch a Monzo Twitter Community
There will be at least one in-person UK community event
There will be at least one virtual UK community event
There will be an investors’ event (in person or virtual)
There will be (at least) one update email for investors.
0voters
Part 2 - Finance and Fintech
Project Imagine (Dozens) will survive into 2023
The reimagined Dozens app will be a success
Starling will launch a credit card
Starling will float before the end of the year
Starling will acquire another firm
Starling will be acquired
Starling will receive bad press due to their covid loans
Revolut will have its application for a UK banking licence approved
Revolut will buy another firm for its UK banking licence
Revolut will have a down-round (it’s valuation / share price will drop)
Tandem will be bought out or insolvent
Atom Bank will be acquired
Coconut will be acquired
Curve will be acquired
Curve will fully launch in the US
Metro Bank rediscovers success and its share price increases
Metro Bank is acquired
Chase launches direct debits and standing orders
Chase ends the year with millions of customers
Chase extends its cash back offer to the end of 2022
Nutmeg is folded into the Chase app
Freetrade launches in Europe
Freetrade launches elsewhere
Freetrade and Monzo announce deep integration
The Bank of England Base rate is >3% by the end of the year
The government renames the Bank of England (to something like the Bank of Britain).
Klarna and other buy now pay later firms will be subject to much tighter regulations
Crowdcube is acquired
Crowdcube goes bust
Open Banking payments go mainstream
Amazon will switch open banking on to escalate the war with Mastercard and Visa
Amazon and Visa come to an agreement to keep Visa Credit cards accepted on Amazon
If the last poll was for things that, on sober reflection, we thought will (probably) happen, this one is for all of our wishes, wants and desires! I’ve lightly edited it to make it a bit more product-focused…
Polling fingers at the ready…
Ability to Flex non-Monzo transactions
Pay for Flex, and Monzo Plus and Premium, from Pots
Direct payments from Pots
Different time periods in Trends (e.g. weeks, years, custom)
Trends finds a way to segregate mandatory and discretionary spend
Budgeting moves to Trends
Summary is retired
Notes, split bills, tabs and search for connected accounts
A proper web interface
Tablet apps (iPad / Android tablet)
Cheque imaging!
Native international transfers in the app (with an IBAN)
Android search reaches iOS parity
Enriched merchant data is updated / accurate again
Enriched merchant data is abandoned
No physical card by default (but can be ordered for free)
Pay in cash at the post office
Master feed, aggregating different accounts or pots in one feed
Removal of the blue buttons below the cards on the feed
Complete redesign of the app
Redesign of the transaction screen
Payments directly between Pots / connected accounts
A redesigned payments screen
Faster Payments in / out match your specified payee name
Overdrafts for joint accounts
Plus / Premium for joint accounts
Flex for joint accounts
Monzo offers stocks and shares (or other investment products)
Monzo offers crypto products
Full launch in the US
International (non-US) expansion
Monzo closes US operations
Samsung Pay
Garmin Pay
Badger Pay
Credit Card Pots (when you spend on a linked credit card, stash that money in a pot)
Automatic get-paid-early
Automatic salary sorter
Children’s / family accounts
Something else (tell us below)
0voters
How many of the our top-five do we think Monzo will deliver?
None (sad face)
1
2
3
4
5
5 with bells on (it’ll be Christmas again before you know it).
I meant the top executives - the Chief Executive, the Chief Finance Officer, the Chief Technology Officer etc… Sometimes known as the CxOs or the C Suite (from, I think, times where they would have plush office accommodation, separate from the junior staff…)
Kind of does - Monzo Flex Virtual Cards. Only thing is you have a minimum spend of £30 with them but they work with Apple/Google Pay for spending in brick & mortar or with standard card forms on websites
Nope - hasn’t fully launched yet - there’s still potentially a few changes we want to make first (mostly behind the scenes but potentially some customer facing changes as well).
I think it could go either way, but the optimist in me says that the “new” CEO’s first year (and a bit?) was sorting out the business, with the new Chief Product person getting to grips with a proper product pipeline and sorting out some of the fundamentals behind the scene.
If that’s the case, and they’ve got the company to where they want it, I expect to see an increased velocity for delivery and a regular heartbeat of releases, focused on a) new products, b) more differentiation for Plus/Premium, and, c) filling in the gaps of missing core banking features (IBAN, cheque imagining etc) and making sure that Monzo remains ahead of the competition.
I’d hope that that would all be accompanied by a bit more visibility in the media and with the community.
If it’s not the case, I think we’ll be able to clock it by, say, March. That’ll be characterised by lack of delivery, slow pace of change, a default to secrecy and a lack of engagement with the press and the community.
Checking the (January) Big 2022 Poll with what’s actually happened by the end of every 2022 quarter would show how close or how far off the Jan-Poll results were.
@Peter_G I do think that some of your predictions are right regarding some of the fintechs falling by the wayside or being eaten up by the bigger players.
My hope for the future is that those who do survive flourish in 2022
When I say flourish, I don’t mean lots of new features (although I hope that those that do want these get them too) for me, it means that they all find a way to profitability and continued success
I meant to cancel a bill two bills ago then forgot and it went via virtual card on pot and I completely missed it as it was in the pot feed which is also not the default view. Roll on unified feed.
So I think I’ll leave the polls open until the end of the month, then in February we’ll have a quick look at how the direction of travel is faring against our predications…
In the meantime, here is what we’ve learnt:
On Monzo predictions…
The Community isn’t particularly bullish on anything! The top voted prediction (with only 49% of voters going for it) is Direct Payments from Pots. Even Monzonauts are getting in on the action, with at least one pluming for the option…
The one that I thought everyone would vote for - Flex fully launching - is in second place with 48% of the vote. If this one isn’t nailed down then what is? And what were the 52% of people who didn’t vote for this thinking?! Mystic Al (@AlanDoe) has voted for this one, so it’s basically already happened, right?!
Finishing up the top three is Flex, Plus and Premium payments from pots with 45%. I wish I had your optimism, but fingers crossed anyway!
We then head into 30% territory with something else which is pretty likely - 6m users, then a whole bunch of related stuff (Summary retirement at 34%, different time periods in Trends at 29%, then Budgeting into Trends at 26%). I confess some confusion as to the 5% gap between the first and last of these - do some folk think that budgeting is gonna go all Year In Monzo on us?
At the other end of the table, literally no one thinks that the FCA probe will result in an existential crisis for Monzo. Yay! But Community and international lovers look set to be disappointed: despite a strong steer otherwise from Mystic Al, only 3% of voters think the CEO will post or do an AMA, and only 2 out of 142 voters think that someone else from the C-Suite will. And only three people think there’ll be a full launch in the US, while three (other) folk think there will be some non-US international expansion…
On Finance and Fintech
Still nothing breaking the magical 50% mark, but Chase comes close, with 48% of folk thinking they’ll launch direct debits and standing orders. Gotta happen, right?!
In second place (41%) is Starling with their fabled credit card. It’s been coming for the last few years, for personal accounts then for businesses. Assuming they don’t go all Starling Flex on us, might this (finally) be the year?
Third (40%) is tighter regulation for Buy Now Pay Later firms… Let’s see - and whether that helps or hinders Flex.
At the other end of the table, 2% of voters think that Crowdcube will go bust (that’s good news, right?), only 3% think that Curve will fully launch in the US, and only four people out of the 77 voters think that a reimagined Dozens app will be a success
But, having said all of that, was there any point?! 58% of voters think the Community’s prediction powers will fail miserably. #FaithManages
Reminder: If you haven’t already, jump up here and tell us what you want (what you really really want). And @AlanDoe will zigga-zig-ahmake it happen look on sagely, smiling knowingly at the one or two things that are baked in and shaking his head at the unreasonable expectations we all have.
Big Wish Countdown
In at first place is that old chestnut, cheque imaging. Will 2022 be the year that Monzo makes our 1990s banking realness come true? It’s the only wish over 50% so it’s gotta be done, right?
In second place is Direct Payments from Pots. If there’s one thing that the community likes almost as much as exchanging money through writing on bits of paper, it’s Pots! Especially paying directly from them. Fortunately, we also think this is what’s on the cards for this year, so we’re moderating our expectations!
More Pots! This time credit card pots - stashing away the amount you spend on credit cards from your Monzo account to a Monzo pot. Then presumably paying the bill from that pot. That’d be sweet…
At the other end of the table…
Poor the Garmin Pay. Only 2% (just three people) want it. And it’s even beaten by Badger Pay. Oh my.
…
as it was in the pot feed which is also not the default view. Roll on unified feed.
fingers crossed 
In at first place is that old chestnut, cheque imaging. Will 2022 be the year that Monzo makes our 1990s banking realness come true? It’s the only wish over 50% so it’s gotta be done, right?
In second place is Direct Payments from Pots. If there’s one thing that the community likes almost as much as exchanging money through writing on bits of paper, it’s Pots! Especially paying directly from them. Fortunately, we also think this is what’s on the cards for this year, so we’re moderating our expectations! 
More Pots! This time credit card pots - stashing away the amount you spend on credit cards from your Monzo account to a Monzo pot. Then presumably paying the bill from that pot. That’d be sweet… 
