AFTER NINE years of losses, Monzo's coral-coloured cards are finally in the black – and chief executive TS Anil is ready to paint the rest of the world in Monzo's distinctive hue.
The digital bank’s first annual profit of £15.4 million, announced in June 2024, marked a dramatic turnaround from the previous year’s £116.3m loss. For Anil, a 52-year-old veteran banker who took the reins from founder Tom Blomfield in 2020, it validated his steadfast belief that companies don't need to choose between mission and profits.
“What's exciting to me is that, as we pursue that mission of changing people’s relationship with money, we've built a business model that is congruent with that,” Anil told CNBC. Under his leadership, Monzo has grown to serve one in six UK adults, becoming the country's seventh-largest bank by customer numbers.
The mobile app-based bank has amassed over 10 million customers in Britain since its launch in 2015.
The banker from New Delhi, who earned his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, brought nearly three decades of corporate banking experience to the startup world when he joined Monzo. His time at financial giants like Visa, Standard Chartered, and Citigroup might seem at odds with Monzo's disruptor ethos, but this blend of traditional banking knowledge and innovative thinking has proved potent.
Anil’s approach centres on solving customer anxieties around money – regardless of their wealth or age. “The relationships that customers have with their money, for every level, has been one of anxiety,” he explained at London Tech Week last year. His solution? Transform that relationship through technology and accessibility.
This philosophy has driven initiatives like Monzo's investment product, which has attracted remarkable numbers of first-time investors – particularly women, who make up 45 per cent of new investors on the platform. “That is staggering because it means what we're doing is working with tearing down those barriers,” Anil noted.
With fresh funding of £340m secured in May 2024 – the largest European fintech raise of the year – and the subsequent employee share sale in October, which valued the company at £4.5 billion, Anil is steering the bank toward global expansion.
Plans include a renewed push into the US market, European expansion through Ireland, and the launch of new products including pensions and mortgages.
“The exciting thing for me is not sort of pausing to celebrate the year that's gone by or pausing to celebrate where we're at right now, because really the excitement is about what's to come,” he has said.
For Anil, it's about bringing “the best of tech and the best of banking together” while raising industry standards. “I love the fact that features that we build, eventually find a way to other banks building them out,” he says, highlighting how Monzo's innovations ripple through the sector.
