Monzo reported its first annual profit on Monday in a milestone for the fast-growing British digital bank and said it would open an office in Ireland as it looks to expand into other European markets.
The mobile app-based bank has amassed 9.7 million customers in Britain since its launch in 2015 but had previously found it tough to translate its popularity into profit.
Monzo reported a pretax profit of 15.4 million pounds ($19.6 million) for the year to March 2024, compared with a 116.3 million pound loss the previous year.
It is one of several digital banks to spring up in Britain, although the upstarts have struggled to break the dominance of the country’s Big Four – HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays and NatWest.
Monzo’s push into more lending and savings products has helped boost its revenue, which more than doubled to 514.4 million pounds.
But the expanded lending – including buy-now-pay-later products – has come at some cost, with its provision for potential loan defaults almost doubling to 204 million pounds.
Monzo provided no updates on its public listing plans.
CEO TS Anil told reporters it was “heartening” to see IPO activity returning, but said it was too early to discuss its own plans.
The bank provided an update on a regulatory probe into its historic compliance with money laundering regulations, first disclosed in 2021.
Monzo said it had been informed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that it was no longer assessing criminal liability in the matter, although an investigation is ongoing and the potential financial impact is unknown.
Anil said the company was cooperating with the watchdog on the investigation. The FCA declined to comment.
Monzo said it was in the early stages of opening a Dublin office to pave the way for expansion across Europe.
The bank is also making a second tilt at the lucrative U.S. market after hiring a new leadership team for the venture. It had abandoned a previous attempt in 2021.
The company secured 340 million pounds of new funding in March in a round led by Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab-owned fund CapitalG, valuing Monzo at 4 billion pounds ($5.1 billion).
($1 = 0.7855 pounds)
