Surina Somal

The impact of the SVR on the amount a homebuyer can borrow is significant. For many the cheapest rate for a few years might not be a good outcome.

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There's a lot the investment industry can learn from Monzo Bank, when it comes to social media. They excel at engaging authentically with their customers, responding to queries, acknowledging feedback, and creating a community vibe. By building a platform online, that reflects your culture and tone of voice, you build trust, a vital component to the investment industry. Monzo practises transparency about anything from product updates, issues, and company decisions to foster customer loyalty. Investment firms can similarly benefit from being open about their processes, performance, and changes. We are entering into a period of heightened transparency and by showing early willing to embrace openness, your brand can quickly become synonymous with honesty, which will once again add towards building trust. Monzo's vibrant and consistent visual identity makes it easily recognisable. Investment firms can take inspiration from their approach and, by ensuring their branding, values and tone of voice are all cohesive across all platforms, can strengthen their brand recall. Additionally, Monzo often shares financial tips and educational content. Investment firms can position themselves as thought leaders by providing valuable insights. Monzo's approach to social media is a good motivation for how investment firms can start to build a stronger, more engaging brand. Whilst maybe this more traditional industry might choose to take a more sedate approach in comparison, the foundations are the same. My thoughts, start with a few posts and see where it takes you! #InvestmentBranding #Monzo #BrandingTips

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Countless press articles over the past few days covering Monzo Bank posting its first annual profit of £15.4m since launching in 2015 (including this latest one from the Financial Times below) The business is now valued at $5.2b. Lot's of questions (mostly dodged!) about the potential of a London listing or the prospect of a US listing with a growing US focus. Also confirmation that it’s in the early stages of expanding into the broader European market via a new base in Ireland which is exciting. The company said that it expects to grow its customer count to 11 million in the coming year under the leadership of TS Anil. The UK neobank scene appears to be thriving which is great. We currently manage more than 40,000 retail investor positions in Monzo from when they invested in the company between 2016 and 2018. Investors who participated in the 2016 round came in at a pre money valuation of £23.6m 😎 https://lnkd.in/eHcsex_u

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The biggest UK mortgage lenders have continued to reduce interest rates over the past few weeks, as the market prices in recent and further expected cuts to the Bank of England’s Bank Rate. Everything you need to know about remortgaging in 2024 in The Telegraph #johncharcol #mortgagebroker #mortgagebrokers #mortgagebrokerage #remortgage #remortgaging #fixedrates #fixedrate #producttransfer #pt #switchlenders #advice #mortgageholders #lenders #mortgage #mortgagelending #mortgagebrokeruk #mortgages #mortgageadvice #mortgageadvisor mortgage #mortgagelending #mortgagebrokeruk https://lnkd.in/eXB_uDaN

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⚡ Today's flash PMIs remain positive, and as our Chief UK Economist James Sproule explains, looking into the figures, it seems businesses are waiting to see what happens in the upcoming Budget. 📍 Read James' Fast Comment for more: https://lnkd.in/ekcRRiFR #banking #ukeconomy #economicnews

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Monzo Bank the leading digital bank in the UK (also present in the US) with over 7m users is launching Under 16s Account. What a great idea! Monzo new account will let children set savings goals, organise their money with savings Pots, access in-app financial education. Monzo for Under 16s will give children their first taste of saving and budgeting, as well as receiving scheduled pocket money payments and using a contactless debit card to pay for things – as well as their own Monzo app linked to a parent’s account if the child owns a smartphone. Teen Banking is an offer that Community Banks and Credit Unions can't ignore if they want to grow their deposits and retain their future customers. How can they deploy a teen banking solutions ? They have three potential approaches to mobile banking for teenagers. They can either act as direct providers of teen banking services, similar to what Capital One offers. Alternatively, they can partner with fintechs offering teen banking services, effectively reselling these services. Lastly, they can opt to become customers of white-label solutions offered by certain fintechs claiming to provide a white-label offering. But what exactly does "white label offering" mean, and how does it align with the claims? In essence, it should mean that the financial institution's end users become the true customers of the FI, giving them the sense that they are banking with their community bank or credit union, with deposits remaining at the FI level. However, the reality of these "white label offerings" can be quite different: What's the reality with these "white label offerings" out there? - it is at best a co-branded solution upon subscription (then it is fully the Fintech app & brand) - the customer receives a complimentary subscription the 1st year - the end user has to connect her / his FI account as the Fintech funding source. Agora (Financial Technologies formerly Agora Services) stands out as the only fintech (pure B2B provider - no risk of cannibalization) capable of empowering community banks and credit unions with a genuine white-label solution: - The FI institution's brand remains front and center. - The FI retains ownership of its customers and members. - Deposits are securely held by the FI, not by another partner held. - Revenues generated belong to the FI. What's more, Agora's white-label teen banking solution can be swiftly deployed within weeks, without the need for complex integrations with the FI's core systems. If you're interested in learning how to implement a true white-label teen banking solution, don't hesitate to get in touch with us. See here Monzo detailed offer https://lnkd.in/ebgyS2wY #digitalbanking #corebanking #bankingsolutions #payments #fintechsolutions #digitaltransformation #fintech #baas #neobanks #challengerbanks #embeddedfintech #creditunions #communitybanks #embeddedfinance #nichebanking #ai #teenbanking #whitelabelsolutions

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Really interesting to read about TISA's new select ID scheme. Allowing customers to select their preferred Digital ID provider, this will not only simplify the customer jounrey and reduce fraud but forge the future of Digital ID within the industry. http://spr.ly/6044ewNTj

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📊 This report on SME data is becoming a bit of a hot topic this past week. I've been talking with industry partners about it, and there's no doubt of the potential to change the game for SME financing. Whether you're a lender, working in a fintech, or just interested in how small businesses get funded, this report has some eye-opening insights. Here are the key points that stood out for me: ✅Data validation is crucial. While accounting data forms the foundation, cross-referencing multiple sources ensures accuracy and reliability in decision-making. 🏢The core SME market is underserved. Open banking solutions cater to smaller businesses, but 45% of UK market turnover lies in the Commercial Lending sweet spot. Are we missing opportunities? 💡Rethinking data provision models. Instead of lenders building complex in-house solutions or relying solely on open banking, leveraging specialized data aggregators offers a more scalable approach. Thoughts on these findings? How can we better serve the SME lending market? #wegetfinancialdata #SMELending #FinTech #DataDrivenDecisions

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Monzo Bank's former employees request participation in secondary transaction, according to a report. Existing investors, StepStone Group and GIC, will participate as buyers in the sale, that at present is only available to current employees. TS Anil | Gary Hoffman #Secondaries #SecondaryMarket #AlternativeInvestments #PrivateMarkets #Deals #Venture #VentureCapital #VC https://lnkd.in/d4SQjwQ7

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We understand that not every business has a marketing budget like Monzo Bank, but their campaign highlights a crucial lesson in the importance of brand awareness. In today's media-saturated world, capturing your audience's attention isn't enough; you need to 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 it. Establishing trust between your business and consumers is essential, even before their first purchase or sign-up. Investing in brand awareness ensures your business remains top of mind for potential customers, ready for when they're ready to engage. Need help building brand awareness? Contact our creative team at [email protected] 📩 #BrandAwareness #Marketing #BrandMarketing #MarketingBudget

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Monzo Bank and the pensions revolution... After its plans to move into the pensions market went public in 2023, Monzo has announced it will be launching a new pension consolidation solution that finds users’ pension pots and brings them into one fund, accessible through the Monzo app. Monzo had asked 2,000 people what would make engaging with their pension easier, and 38% said a process that felt more accessible to manage alongside their everyday finances. Earlier this year, we conducted our own research into consumer attitudes towards their pension and investment providers. We found that: - 36% of 35-44 year olds said too little information from their providers was putting them off adding to their pension or investments - 2 in 5 (42%) of all consumers say they don’t find it easy to interact with their providers - 4 in 5 (79%) consumers “could save more money” if they had one app to view and manage all their banks accounts and financial products A holistic approach can lead to better outcomes, and it begins with aggregation. Bringing pension pots together helps people understand their true financial position, and answer important questions like “will I have enough?” or “when can I retire?” At Moneyhub we would go one step further and bring other investments such as savings, shares and even property into that view. Often people will take a lump sum earlier than or draw down faster than they need to when they have other options open to them. Monzo’s solution reflects what we are seeing from major players within the pensions industry; pensions are one piece of the puzzle, and need to be understood in the wider context of someone’s financial world. Providers such as Mercer, Standard Life UK, SEI and Scottish Widows are taking a proactive approach to helping members engage with their pensions and understand what they have, and what they might need for a comfortable retirement. By using Open Finance to position pensions alongside daily spending, savings, investments, properties and all other financial accounts, these firms are increasing engagement and enabling better financial futures for their members. Read the full post ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gZR3afwW

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Monzo Bank Announces First Full Year of Profitability Amid Record Growth and Accelerates International Expansion Plans Monzo, the UK’s largest digital bank, today announced its first full year of profitability, achieving a pre-tax profit of £15.4m for the financial year ended 31 March 2024. This was driven by a 2.5x jump in gross revenues to £880m, across diversified income streams. This broad-based revenue growth has been driven by 9.7m customers who are trusting Monzo with more of their money, using it to spend, budget, save, invest and borrow. Monzo added 2.3m customers in the year, including 200,000 new business customers, and is already the UK’s seventh-largest bank. Customer deposits grew at a significant rate of 88% to £11.2bn, with deepening engagement across Monzo’s customer base, as the bank added more products and features to help customers manage more of their financial lives. The 2024 financial year saw Monzo scale and invest with discipline as it made strides on its ambition to become the one app customers turn to, to manage their entire financial lives. By bringing the best of banking and technology together, Monzo launched many game-changing products and features including Instant Access Savings, Monzo Investments, Cashback, and an industry-first in its fraud-preventing Call Status tool. Monzo’s Instant Access Savings Account launched at a time when it was needed most, attracting 1.3 million customers in just over a year. Monzo continued to invest in and grow its existing subscription offerings, with more than 500,000 customers subscribing to Monzo Plus and Monzo Premium to access key benefits. Its Investments product enjoyed exceptional uptake from first-time investors and a new Cashback rewards offering has seen £1.5m paid back to customers since its November launch. Throughout the year the company continued to help customers manage their money in the face of persistent economic challenges and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. It passed on the majority of base rate rises to customers, paying out more than £130m in interest. It has also continued to support customers with their borrowing needs across a wider range of services including overdrafts, personal loans and Monzo Flex. Gross lending increased 84% to £1.4bn as the business continued to safely grow its lending business. Monzo’s popular savvy budgeting tools and features were put to work, with automated round-ups saving customers more than £16m each month and the 1p savings challenge helping customers put away £16m in FY24. Source Fintech Finance News #digitalbanking #fintech #banking

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Is it embedded finance or not? Does it actually matter? Firstly, this is great move for both Zopa Bank and John Lewis & Partners It is hard to tell for this release but my hunch is that it is an affiliate style play, rather than a truly embedded one. The reason I say that is because there is no suggestion here that any data is shared between the two partners to enable better pricing on one hand, and more consumer data for John Lewis to further enhance their understanding of their customers. The user experience may also be less than seamless between the two entities. It is however a good start but the challenge will be, as always, conversion. It will be hard to know, for both sides, who converted and why and thus improve future customer conversion and satisfaction. Do you think it’s actually embedded finance? (Looking at you Lars Markull 😜- echoing some of our previous conversations) #embeddedfinance #embeddedbanking #loans https://lnkd.in/eunaJ5mu

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CapitalRise Secures New £30 Million Funding Line for Bridging Loans Uma Rajah, CEO and Co-Founder of CapitalRise, commented: “Securing this additional £30 million funding line for bridging loans further supports the diversification of our capital sources, ensuring a robust funding model. We are thrilled to secure this new funding line as part of our continued commitment to serving our clients with bespoke financial solutions.” https://lnkd.in/e5YAkGyB Pip Lashko-Sayers #fintech #finance #banking #paytech #payments #fintechnews #paymentsnews

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🗣️Jonny Haseldine, Policy Manager: "We welcome these announcements, implementing important changes that will tackle the scourge of late payments. This unacceptable practice has a very real impact on businesses and the overall UK economy, acting as a barrier to growth for SMEs." Read our full response to today's plans from Government to crackdown on late payments 👇 https://lnkd.in/gS2_iwJu

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Monzo Bank has reported its first annual profit since launching nearly a decade ago. The London-based fintech has benefited from higher interest rates and growth in transaction fees and subscriptions 👏 Monzo CEO, TS Anil, commented on the news on his LinkedIn: “I’ve never believed in the idea that a company has to choose between either being mission-oriented, or focused on business outcomes. FY2024 proved Monzo is doing both – and that our strategy of placing the customer at the heart of everything we do is working at scale..." 👇 Read more below 👇 #StartupsMagazine #Startups #Entrepreneur #Monzo

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https://lnkd.in/eVUf_fxg Hot off the press 🔥 The UK’s payments regulator (PSR) has confirmed a U-turn on the maximum amount banks and Fintechs will have to reimburse fraud victims under the new regime. After announcing a two-week consultation on 4 September, the PSR said today that firms will now have to refund victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud up to a limit of £85,000 per claim from 7 October. This cap is down from £415,000, which triggered concerns from the industry and government that it could be unaffordable for smaller payment firms and encourage new types of scams. “This was a carefully balanced decision – which provides significant protection to fraud victims and strikes an appropriate balance having regard to the PSR’s innovation and competition objectives and making sure that payment systems work well for everyone,” the PSR said. #psr #regupdate #regaffairs #fintechs #banks #banking #payments #UK

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