Monzo are a fintech company based in the U.K. that pride themselves on being the ‘bank of the future’. They’re leading the way in helping customers manage their finances, all from the convenience of their smartphone. This is the only way to interact with Monzo as they’re a bank with no high street presence.
Next Gen Financial Education
Some of us Toward team members & friends went to a talk held by Monzo last week at the Tramshed in Cardiff. The session covered how tech can help educate customers about their finances and what responsibilities (if any) banks have, to make sure their customers are responsible with their money. The talk touched on:
- Why simplifying banking terms and avoiding jargon is important
- How the public and private sector can work together to improve financial literacy (in schools and universities)
- How to have Monzo thrive in a world where cash is still widely used
- Educating users of other financial services to save their money in (investment accounts vs savings accounts) and how to get that money working for you
Finance stats incoming, seatbelts on...
The idea of not being able to manage my finances through a banking app seems alien to me and ‘more than one-quarter (27%) of millennials are completely reliant on a mobile banking app’ (1). Hands up, I am one of these millennials, however, my gripe with banking apps in the past have been the applications were clunky, lacked key features and weren’t designed properly for a mobile UX.
My banking apps of the past have felt like an afterthought and relied on the user being able to access a desktop to use the some of the key features. Paying new contacts, opening a new accounts or even logging into the application required a desktop or an additional card reader that you’d have to carry around with you everywhere you go… Enter Monzo.
Spending targets & analysis, budget overviews, periodic payment lists, bill splitting and easy peer to peer payments are just some of the features that have allowed Monzo to get a head start in providing a better UX for their customers.
Is it showing that I’m a bit of a fan?
#notspon
What seems clear to me is that the financial landscape will be significantly different in 10 years time. Monzo are slowly but surely setting a new standard for banking. Proof of this is that the ‘big banks’ are seeing the threat from younger companies and are adapting similar ideas into existing products and services in order to reduce the number of people jumping ship and leaving their current accounts (no pun intended) to a service that can provide them the features they’d expect from a bank.
Admittedly the traditional banking apps have come a long way in a short period of time and have massively improved their online services in order to increase engagement with the ‘millennial generation’, as we're looking for more from our banking apps to manage our finances easier than ever before.
If you haven’t heard of Monzo and you haven’t had your interest piqued yet by this blog post/accidental sales pitch (again, #notspon) I’d check them out. If not just for the incredible app UX, branding and setting of a new standard for banking, then for the fact that at the end of the month you can calculate how much you’ve spent on meal deals during lunch and the resulting realisation you should start bringing in sandwiches from home and save yourself a couple quid...
TL;DR - Monzo held a really interesting talk about the future of banking, financial education and how they’re looking to solve problems that arise from disrupting the banking industry. I give an opinion and you should check out the app to save money on sandwiches.
1) https://blog.flexcutech.com/bl...
Image Credit - Monzo
