Great to see Monzo getting recognition from such a senior member of the government - I think it shows that getting this license really is a big deal in the grand scheme of things, not just for Monzo & us users -
The Economic secretary to the Treasury Simon Kirby was also quoted as saying
The authorisation of pioneering digital banks like Monzo underlines the UK’s status as the best place in the world to start and grow a fintech.
I look forward to seeing Monzo succeed. Its innovative products and services offer a real alternative to existing banks and will help increase competition – delivering one of the government’s key objectives to make UK financial services the most competitive in the world.
Lol @ the competitor butthurt in the tweet responses - along the lines of ‘it’s not fair that you are promoting Monzo and not other challengers who have gained a license’.
The reason why the Chancellor doesn’t rep the rest is because they are not his FinTech envoy Eileen Burbidge’s darlings which goes to show how important it is to pick your investors rather than just figuring out who will give you the most money for the lowest stake. Monzo’s competitors have gone with banking incumbents or Chinese retailers whereas Monzo have sought out important industry insiders and it is paying off
Congratulations all at Monzo. Please get the current account up and running soon.
Currently with Smile bank at the Co Op and that’s about ready to be shut down or go into BoE protection so need to get account switched over to Monzo as soon as possible.
I might be jumping the gun here, but would there be an ability to transfer money from any international bank account to a uk monzo account without a transfer fee soon?
Since it’s the bank that you’re sending the money from who applies the charges, rather than Monzo, I guess you’d have to request this from your bank. The Monzo current accounts will be standard bank accounts though, with account numbers & sort codes.
Like we did in my previous bunk-founding process in Italy, you should allow us Monzonauts to choose our Account number (not the sort code) if allowed by current Regulations.
my 2cent😉
In short no, not if you are using a standard transfer. For any standard international transfer using the SWIFT network there are potentially two sets of charges. Those charged by the remitting (sending) bank and those charged by the beneficiary ( receiving) bank. The customer sending the money can normally choose whether or not to bear these costs as an additional cost to themselves or for the charges to be paid by the beneficiary by deduction from the amount credited. Most transfers though are sent on a remitter beneficiary basis where the sender pays the charges for sending and the recipient pays the costs of receiving.
While Monzo might choose not to charge a fee for processing the credit it receives as the beneficiary bank (and in part this will I guess depend on whether it uses any third party whose costs it has to bear) the remitting bank charges will continue to apply because these aren’t determined by Monzo.
which goes to show how important it is to pick your investors rather than just figuring out who will give you the most money for the lowest stake. Monzo’s competitors have gone with banking incumbents or Chinese retailers whereas Monzo have sought out important industry insiders and it is paying off 
