Monzo has published its annual results for the 12 months to 28 February 2017, revealing total losses of £6.7 million.

The report revealed that the challenger bank’s prepaid programme has surpassed 240,000 funded accounts, with more than a quarter of a million pound spent in total. The bank has seen an average of five per cent weekly growth in customer numbers and seven per cent weekly growth in transaction volumes.

Monzo has enjoyed successes since the start of 2017, securing £22.5 million in investment, directly connecting to both Faster Payments and Mastercard as members, and receiving its full UK banking licence in April – laying the foundations for a launch of full bank accounts.

Tom Blomfield, CEO of Monzo, discussed the next steps for the bank and its priorities in the coming months: “First, we want to continue to grow our user base and ensure we can meet that level of demand operationally.

“If we continue to grow at this rate, we will hit somewhere between 500,000 and 800,000 accounts by the end of the year. To continue to offer the level of support we aim for, we will need to significantly expand our team; we’re looking to bring on around 40 new customer operations staff in the next six months.

“Our second priority is rolling out the current account. We believe people shouldn’t need to think about financial products. People didn’t sign up for Monzo because they were looking for a prepaid card; instead, they want immediate visibility and control of their money. The shift from prepaid card to current account, therefore, should be as seamless as possible for our customers. The current account will have all of the functionality of the existing prepaid card, but add on features like Direct Debits, Faster Payments and overdrafts.”

Blomfield stated that the bank has enough capital for at least the first 12 months of life as a bank, but that it will need to raise more funding in early 2018. These plans may be accelerated if the rate of growth increases faster than expected.

The prepaid scheme results in approximately £50 losses per active customer each year, with around 40 per cent of that loss due to international ATM usage outside of the UK or EU.

In the long term, Monzo hopes to provide a “powerful financial control centre” for a billion people, with plans for loyalty schemes, opening ISAs, mortgages and credit cards all on the horizon.

Blomfield concluded: “We see ourselves as trusted custodians of both your money and your data. We will only succeed if we maintain that trust. We’re incredibly excited about this year and the opportunities ahead of us. I’d like to thank the Monzo team, our investors, and the wider Monzo community who all have helped us get this far.”

Share Story: