Monzo Bank, a UK-based digital bank, experienced significant growth in its customer base between 2018 and 2024. After receiving its full banking license in 2017, the total number of customers reached to 0.59 million in 2018. By 2020, the customer base had more than doubled compared to the previous year, with a total of four million customers. In 2024, the bank had a total of 9.7 million users, which was the highest number since its establishment.

Monzo, a pioneering digital bank based in the United Kingdom, offers current accounts to individuals, limited companies, and sole traders. Between 2018 and 2024, the bank experienced consistent growth in its customer base, reaching a notable milestone of 9.7 million customers in March 2024. Based on its current growth trajectory, Monzo is projected to expand its customer base to approximately 14 million by the end of 2025.

Established in 2015, Monzo is a United Kingdom (UK) based retail bank that provides current accounts to individuals, limited companies and sole-traders. With no physical branches, Monzo is one of a growing number of disruptor or challenger banks which run accounts online through mobile apps. Key figures In 2024, Monzo had reached 9.7 million customers, up from approximately 7.4 million in the previous year. Like many newcomers, Monzo had to rely on outside funding and investment. Competitors Arguably the largest disruptor bank to come out of Europe is the London-based Revolut. Incorporated in December 2013, Revolut has grown exponentially in terms of both revenue and customers. Another app-based bank that became hugely popular is the Berlin-based N26, which reached the milestone of seven million customers in 2021.

Established in 2015, Monzo is a UK-based retail bank that provides current accounts to individuals, limited companies, and sole traders. With no physical branches, Monzo is one of a growing number of disruptor or challenger banks that run accounts online through mobile apps. Between 2018 and 2022, Monzo increased its customer base steadily, along with displaying several other positive indicators. In 2023, however, the ratio of customers gained dropped notably. Monzo's customer trends Customer growth is often considered the most critical driver for banks seeking to disrupt the market. Monzo experienced significant customer challenges in the United Kingdom, with net customer losses throughout 2022 and 2023. In the last quarter of 2022, the bank lost more than one customer for every new customer acquired. This negative trend persisted through 2023, with each quarter showing a negative customer acquisition ratio. However, the second quarter of 2024 marked a turning point, with Monzo achieving a positive acquisition ratio of 1.1 percent, which exceeded the market average. During this quarter, over 1,000 new customers joined the bank, signaling a potential recovery in its customer growth strategy. Disruptor banks In 2024, European disruptor banks continued to attract new customers. Revolut, headquartered in London, has emerged as the leading digital bank in Europe, significantly outpacing other digital banks in customer numbers. Several online banks in the region have secured venture capital funding, achieving unicorn status. As of September 2024, Monzo ranked as the third most valuable online bank unicorn in Europe.

Founded in 2015, Monzo Bank has emerged as one of the leading digital banks in the United Kingdom (UK). Between 2018 and 2024, both loans and advances to customers and customer deposits to Monzo Bank experienced an upward trend. This was mainly due to the increasing number of customers during this period. In 2024, customer deposits reached 11.2 billion British pounds, while loans and advances to customers amounted to 1.2 billion pounds.

Established in 2015, Monzo is a United Kingdom (UK) based retail bank that provides current accounts to individuals, limited companies and sole traders. With no physical branches, Monzo is one of a growing number of disruptor or challenger banks which run accounts online through mobile apps. Monzo customers are currently concentrated in the United Kingdom, with more than 14 million downloads between February 2016 and January 2024.

Monzo Bank experienced steady growth in its customer base between 2019 and 2024, albeit with slight fluctuations. More than one million new customers joined Monzo Bank in 2019. The highest number of new customers joined in 2020 and 2024, with 2.3 million new customers in each of these years. In fact, in 2024, the bank had a total of 9.7 million users, which was the highest number observed since its establishment.

September 2023 was a record month for Monzo bank app in terms of the number of downloads. That month, more than 500,000 people downloaded the UK-based neobank app, which was notably higher than in the previous months. After September 2023, the number of downloads declined but remained relatively high.

The UK-based bank with the highest number of customers in 2023 was Santander, with over 164 million customers worldwide. Barclays followed, with a global customer base of 48 million. Despite their high customer numbers, both these banks rank relatively low when it comes to current account holder customer satisfaction. The top three banks in terms of satisfied customers as of August 2023 were the online banks Starling Bank, First Direct, and Monzo Bank. Are customers switching to online banks? Many current account holders in the United Kingdom switch provider each month. In 2020 and 2021, it seemed like the switches came from the larger banks with many customers to the smaller, more newly founded online banks. The two online banks Starling and Monzo generally have high numbers of net gains for customers, but as of the second quarter of 2023, HSBC and NatWest saw the highest net gains. Complaints of UK bank customers Despite its high worldwide customer number, HSBC seems to have a hard time satisfying its domestic customers in the United Kingdom. In the first half of 2023, HSBC had the second-highest number of banking and credit cards services complaints opened among the domestic banks in the UK.

Established in 2015, Monzo is a United Kingdom (UK) based retail bank that provides current accounts to individuals, limited companies, and sole traders. With no physical branches, Monzo Bank is one of a growing number of disruptor or challenger banks that run accounts online through mobile apps. Starting at less than a million British pounds in 2016, the bank's total assets experienced a significant growth, reaching almost 13 billion British pounds in 2024.

Monzo Bank, headquartered in London and founded in 2015, is a digital bank that offers services to its customers solely online without physical branches. After 2019, its gross revenue experienced a stark increase, exceeding 880 million British pounds in 2024. Alongside the bank's revenue, its total assets also experienced an increase during this time period, reaching almost 13 billion British pounds in 2024.

Founded in 2015, Monzo Bank is one of the growing digital banks based in the United Kingdom (UK). Despite reporting significant losses between 2017 and 2023, Monzo Bank experienced a significant growth in its employee count. Starting from an average of 47 employees in 2017, the average number of personnel amounted to 3,145 in 2024.

Founded in 2015, Monzo Bank is one of the growing digital banks based in the United Kingdom (UK). Despite the rapidly increasing customer base, Monzo reported significant losses between 2016 and 2023. However, in 2024, the bank reported a net profit of 8.71 million British pounds for the first time since its establishment, compared to a loss of 116.3 million British pounds in the previous year.

Revolut, the London-based digital bank, has seen remarkable growth from 1.5 million customers in February 2018 to 50 million in November 2024, making it the UK's most popular digital bank. Wise ranked second with 12.8 million customers, while Monzo reached 9.3 million customers as of March 2024.

Monzo is a UK-based digital bank that offers personal and business banking services. Despite its increasing customer base, Monzo did not report profits between 2016 and 2023. However, in 2024, the bank reported a net profit of over 15 million British pounds for the first time since its establishment, compared to a loss of 116.3 million British pounds in the previous year.

Banks employ various strategies to attract and retain their customer base, such as cheap overdrafts, in-credit interest and no withdrawal charges. While the number of new and active customers can be easily observed, customer satisfaction is trickier. Knowing how customers feel about the service received can help banks adjust to the dynamics of an increasingly competitive market. Customer satisfaction for leading banks in the UK According to the Which? customer satisfaction survey, as of November 2024, three digital banks, First Direct, Monzo Bank, and Starling Bank had the highest customer satisfaction score. According to the survey, 83 percent of these banks' customers were satisfied with the banks' services and products, and willing to recommend them to their friends. Investment in selected European countries Among the services that aim at making banking more customer-oriented and effortless is the current account switch service (CASS). CASS allows customers to change their bank account hassle-free, redirecting transactions and transferring payment arrangements. As of the second quarter of 2024, nine out of 20 banks observed increased their customer base following the CASS process. The highest gain-to-loss ratios were recorded by Danske Bank and Santander, gaining respectively 5.29 and 3.27 times more new customers than the ones lost to other banks.

Revolut had by far the highest number of monthly active users (MAUs) among leading digital banks in Europe in 2024. The UK-based neobank had an average of over six million MAUs through the year, twice as many as Wise, which ranked second with just over three million MAUs. Third in the ranking was another UK-based digital bank, Monzo, with roughly 887,000 MAUs in 2024. Revolut and Wise were also the two largest European digital banks in terms of total assets, with Revolut holding over 20 billion euros in assets at the end of 2023.

Monzo was the most recognized neobank in the United Kingdom in 2024, according to Statista's Consumer Insights. 79 percent of respondents knew the app-based challenger bank, with 50 percent holding a positive opinion. Among those surveyed, 33 percent reported using Monzo in the past year. Revolut and Wise followed in popularity.

Online banking usage in the UK increased steadily between 2007 and 2022. In 2007, around one third of the British population used online banking, which increased up to over 90 percent as of 2022. Banking and financial services are typically among the first industries to embrace technological advances; starting as far back in time as the appearance of automated teller machines (ATMs) and credit cards. Ever since the first secure Internet systems for financial operations became available on a large scale, accessing of one's bank account online to carry out transactions, pay off credit cards, establish credit lines or invest savings became one of the fastest growing areas of Internet activities. Leading online banks in the UK There are several online banks headquartered the UK, including Revolut, Monzo, Starling, Monese, and Atom Bank. As of 2022, Monzo was the most well-known, popular, and used online bank, followed by Starling and Revolut. Established in 2015, Monzo is one of a growing number of disruptor or challenger banks which run accounts online through mobile apps. As of 2023, Monzo customers were concentrated in the UK, as 82 percent of all downloads of the banking app originated from there. Online banking in Europe Across Europe, online banking penetration varied greatly by country. Nordic countries including Norway, Icelad, Finland, and Denmark all had online banking penetration rates of over 90 percent. In stark contrast, Albania, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina had penetration rates lower than 15 percent.

Revolut was the most popular digital bank in Europe by downloads, significantly outpacing all other digital banks in the region. In 2024, the Revolut app was downloaded over 31 million times, with August recording the highest number of downloads. The banking app was particularly popular in the United Kingdom (UK), France, Romania and Poland. Number of active customers Given the impact of multiple downloads and inactive users, the number of active customers, as reported by banks, may provide a more accurate measure of customer growth. In February 2018, Revolut announced reaching 1.5 million customers, a figure that grew to 18 million by 2022 and surged to 35 million by October 2023. By November 2024, Revolut reported surpassing 50 million customers. This rapid growth in customer acquisition has also been reflected in other online-only banks, such as the Berlin-based N26 and London-headquartered Monzo.