Tom Blomfield, CEO and Co-Founder, Monzo
In 2016 I published a blog post on the Monzo website titled: The bank of the future will be a marketplace.
I say Monzo, but in fact we were still called Mondo then. Since that post, we’ve changed our name, grown to a team of over 700 people and welcomed more than 1.5 million customers to change the way they bank. What hasn’t changed is our vision for the bank of the future.
A financial hub tailored for each customer
I opened the post by explaining that the banking culture of ‘owning the customer’ and cross-selling was hurting customers. Marketplace banking (or the ‘hub and spoke’ model) would be different. In this model, the current account is the hub which the customer plugs different spokes, or services, into.
This kind of bank gives you, the customer, a single place to discover and manage products and services based on your spending patterns and preferences. It helps you stay on top of your money. It means you never pay more than you need to for things like energy tariffs or insurance cover. Instead the bank finds, suggests and switches you to plans or deals that are right for you.
If you needed to move money abroad, you’d do it using market-leading foreign exchange rates. You wouldn’t need to search for specialist service providers or open new accounts. If you have money to save, you won’t need worry about shopping around for the best rates. Your bank would pool the services of other providers in one convenient place. And although this marketplace would be a digital platform, the customer would have access to round the clock support from real people if they needed it.
Monzo is creating that platform
When we started Monzo four years ago, we did it to create the best current account in the world. People thought we were mad, and at times I thought they were right. But now we’re growing fast. Around 140,000 people open a Monzo account every month and we’re announcing some seriously exciting things this year.
We’re already integrating with other companies to offer Monzo customers things like contents insurance, ISAs and energy tariffs. We’re helping customers to do more with their money from the app, and in a matter of seconds. We take care of compliant KYC and sanctions checks when the customer creates their current account, which saves companies the cost and time taken to onboard customers. And the best part is that it saves the customer the hassle of opening and managing multiple accounts.
Building Societies have an important role to play
And it’s that customer focus that I know is as important to Building Societies as it is to Monzo. I’ve long hoped that we could do great things together, particularly with savings accounts. We can give Building Societies access to more retail deposits from a more diverse range of customers. Often in age brackets or locations Building Societies don’t traditionally reach. And we can offer a first-rate account opening experience, done on the customer’s phone, with compliant KYC checks at no cost to the Building Society.
We’d love to understand more about how we can collaborate. If you’re interested in speaking to us then please email Max Winston at maxwinston@monzo.com.
Monzo Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Jonas Templestein, will be speaking at the BSA Annual Conference on Friday 24 May 2019. For more information visit https://www.bsaconference.org/seminar/open-banking-at-monzo/