Fintech News from Ireland and around the World

FCA fines UK Fintech Bank, Monzo Bank, £21 million for money laundering control failures

8/7/2025

A very interesting case study / typology for fast growing digital banks, payments firms and cryptoasset services providers and indeed any fintech in any country where there are strong anti-money laundering requirements.

A few days ago (Sunday 6th July 2025) Fintech Ireland wrote a piece about Monzo Bank's continuing plans to establish an authorised bank in Ireland.

Today, Tuesday 8th July 2025, the UK Financial Conduct Authority issued an enforcement notice and fine of £21mn against the rapidly growing digital bank.

We feel that while this matter is about finacial crime, it is incredibly important for all fintech that work in highly regulated jurisdictions such as the UK and Ireland should be aware of. The Central Bank of Ireland is no slouch when it comes to taking enforcement action against against fintechs simply because they are fintech. It really enforces a level playing.

Find short blog on Linkedin (by our Peter Oakes, a leading fintech and coporproate governance expert) and fuller article on www.MoneyLaundering.ie. We hope this information helps financial crime professionals and MLROs with some useful thought for AFC training and the typology library.

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Monzo Bank invests a further €2million (total €8mn to date) setting up its EU base in Ireland

6/7/2025

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[First posted on Linkedin by Peter Oakes, a leading fintech and regulatory expert, on 6 July 2025]

Pursuing a bank authorisation in Ireland isn't cheap! But is the real question how valuable it will be?

Following a further investment in its Irish company of €2mn, UK Fintech bank Monzo Bank, has according to Eoin O'Hare of the Business Post, put in a total amount of €8 million since setting up its EU base here last year.

The Irish subsidiary (Mbeu Designated Activity Company), and Revolut rival, is really ramping up plans to use Dublin as its “gateway to European markets”.

TS Anil, the chief executive of Monzo, said last year that its new Irish office would act as a gateway to Europe, after it raised £340 million (€394 million) to bring its valuation to £4 billion.

The fintech’s Irish arm reported a pre-tax loss of £2.7 million for the financial year ending March 2025, according to the report. The same period saw £23,000 in total Irish income against global turnover of £1.24 billion, a 48 per cent increase, the bulk of which was reported in the UK.

Noting that Monzo’s European expansion plans were “progressing well”, the report said that it expected to “offer banking services in the European Union in the future”.

Edit - just a few days on 8 July 2025 the Financial Conduct Authority fined Monzo Bank in the UK FCA £21m for failings in financial crime controls.

"Monzo's customer base has grown rapidly, increasing almost tenfold from around 600,000 in 2018 to over 5.8 million in 2022. However, Monzo's financial crime controls failed to keep pace with its customer and product growth.

In particular, Monzo failed to design, implement and maintain adequate customer onboarding, customer risk assessment and transaction monitoring systems to mitigate the risk of financial crime. These systemic failings resulted in the FCA requiring a comprehensive, independent review of the firm's financial crime framework in August 2020."

Read this and find more money laundering typologies at Ireland's independent AML website MoneyLaundering.ie - starting here

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FCA fines UK Fintech Bank, Monzo Bank, £21 million for money laundering control failures

Monzo Bank invests a further €2million (total €8mn to date) setting up its EU base in Ireland

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