Challenger banks are on the rise. The convenient, low-fee, tech-savvy service that they offer is truly disrupting the personal finance market. And now, several of these banks are turning their sights to business banking. With companies such as Revolut and Starting getting involved in the sector over the last few years, it was only a matter of time before Monzo followed suit. And, in February 2019, they announced exactly that. However, recent developments may have slowed these ambitions. We look at the details we know so far.
What is the Monzo Business Account?
…many high-street banking services have confusing fees, can be hard to open, and don’t often cater to the needs of companies. Monzo wants to change all this.
The exact details of the Monzo business account are still relatively unknown. The company has so far only trialled their service with 100 accounts. However, their goal is to bring improvements to business banking. As they outline on their blog post on the matter, many high-street banking services have confusing fees, can be hard to open, and don’t often cater to the needs of companies. Monzo wants to change all this.
A Matter of Funding
Although Monzo wants to expand their offering away from personal banking, costing could be an issue. The company applied for a share of the RBS fund dedicated to improving banks offering services to SMEs. Monzo’s plans to ramp up their business account offering depended on securing this funding. However, the plucky bank was unsuccessful in its bid to win a share of the £80 million public grant package.
Although Monzo wants to expand their offering away from personal banking, costing could be an issue.
The digital-only bank remains hopeful that they can still pursue this area of interest. A spokesperson quoted in the Financial News stated, ‘Although we’re disappointed we weren’t successful in this application, we’re still excited to be creating a financial control centre for small and medium-sized businesses.’
When Will the Monzo Business Account Launch?
The news of Monzo’s failure to secure extra funds will come as a blow to the expected timeline. As such, it’s hard to say when we’ll see Monzo business bank accounts launch in the UK. On their blog, the company’s Business Banking Lead stated, ‘Without the funding, we still plan to launch business bank accounts in the future. But because we won’t have the extra firepower, they’ll be a longer-term project that we probably won’t be able to launch for a few years.’
It could be some time before most people get the chance to try out the product, although a few dozen accounts have launched already. We’ll keep our Numo readers updated with any developments on the timeline.
How Will Monzo Business Accounts Work?
Again, it’s hard to say precisely. Details about the proposed account are scarce, although Monzo does provide some information on their website. It seems their focus is on delivering an account that has the features you need for your own business, suggesting a high amount of customisation.
Monzo recently updated the community about some of the features they’ve been working on. These include:
- The final design of the debit card – Sporting the Monzo Business logo, the light grey card looks pretty sleek.
- Account opening – One of the key things for Monzo is that the signup process is simple and quick. They claim it will take just a few minutes, which is similar to most competitors.
- Bank switching – Many customers want the ability to easily switch over bank accounts. Monzo has implemented the Current Account Switch Service to make the transition straightforward.
Those who are intrigued by what they have to offer can sign up to register their interest in the product. Monzo will notify you once they’re offering new accounts.