Overview

• The FCA imposed the £21.1 million penalty for inadequate anti-financial crime systems between October 2018 and August 2020 and for breaching a 2020 requirement to block high-risk account openings.
• Regulator Therese Chambers cited failures in customer onboarding, risk assessment and transaction monitoring that allowed applicants to use implausible addresses such as Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street.
• Despite a ban imposed in August 2020, Monzo onboarded more than 34,000 high-risk customers through June 2022, triggering an independent review of its financial crime framework.
• Monzo CEO TS Anil said the breaches are firmly in the past and that learnings from the period prompted substantial enhancements to the bank’s anti-crime controls.
• The sanction follows recent FCA fines on Starling Bank and Metro Bank and coincides with Monzo nearing 13 million customers during a surge in profitability.