“It’s clear to me people hate their banks but don’t leave until something goes wrong,” said Denise Kingsmill, the chair of the board at U.K. challenger bank Monzo, on Tuesday.
“I want to create something that people don’t hate; that they trust,” said Kingsmill during the opening panel at the 2017 SWIFT Business Forum in London.
Monzo started two years ago and “have just got our banking license”. The mobile-only new digital bank, which wants to displace established U.K. retail banks, uses big data analytics and financial technology (FinTech) to try to serve ordinary customers better.
“We’ve raised £35 million ($44.9 million) in capital via long-term investors and £1 million on the CrowdCube crowdfunding website in 96 seconds, largely as a marketing exercise and to get customer buy-in. They were limited to £500 each,” explained Kingsmill.
Speaking to CNBC.com exclusively afterwards, Kingsmill revealed there are 170,000 customers on Monzo’s waiting list, “who are being on-boarded now in 10,000 person groups prior to our imminent go live.”
