Monzo

Monzo was selected as one of the first firms (alongside NatWest, Santander, Scottish Widows, and others) in the UK Financial Conduct Authority's AI Live Testing programme, which closed first-cohort applications in September 2025. Monzo tested an AI-enabled savings assistant designed to help customers set and adjust savings goals, publishing results on September 21, 2026. In a blog post detailing the collaboration, Monzo said it structured the work around clear customer-problem scope, evidence and accuracy testing, preserving customer control and transparency about AI limitations, and whole-system monitoring and escalation processes developed jointly with the regulator.

The UK's Financial Ombudsman Service found that Monzo wrongly rejected 34% of the 3,372 fraud and scam complaints referred to it in 2025 -over 1,000 cases- the highest wrongful-rejection rate among major British banks, ahead of NatWest (33%) and HSBC (32%). The complaints covered authorised push payment scams, chip-and-PIN fraud, and identity theft.

The FCA fined Monzo £21,091,300 for inadequate anti-financial crime systems from 2018-2020, and for violating a requirement preventing it from opening accounts for high-risk customers from 2020-2022. Monzo onboarded customers using implausible information such as Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street as addresses, and opened over 34,000 accounts for high-risk customers in defiance of FCA orders.

Monzo achieved 50% women representation on its board (66.6% women) and executive committee (33.3% women). The median gender pay gap narrowed from 14.3% in 2020 to 6.3% in 2024. Monzo became the first UK bank to introduce dedicated paid leave for pregnancy loss and fertility treatments. Won Company of the Year at the 2025 British Diversity Awards.