Monzo Issued Order By CMA

Monzo has been issued with an order by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), telling the bank to review the way it informs customers that are leaving the bank of their historic financial transactions.

The order from the CMA comes after Monzo reported that it had identified 13,000 customers that had not received their transactions when they closed their accounts with Monzo between May 2021 and March 2022.

The reason for the exceptional stern warning from the CMA is that Monzo reported a similar breach last year, and had already made statements that it would ensure customers received their transactions in the appropriate window once closing their accounts.

Stern Words From CMA

The order from the CMA dictates that they have issued legally-binding directions that require Monzo to review its procedures with an independent body, rather than rely on its own internal reviews.

And if the bank is found to have failed to comply and ensure that this mistake does not happen again, the CMA may take Monzo to court.

It’s simply not good enough for a major bank like Monzo to repeatedly fail its customers by not following clear rules.

Having a record of your financial transactions can act as important evidence needed to secure a loan or mortgage — so Monzo’s failure to provide these put an unnecessary obstacle in the way of thousands of customers.

We have ordered the bank to make changes which mean customers should not face this issue in the future. We’ll be watching to make sure proper procedure is followed.

Adam Land, CMA Senior Director

Currently, the CMA does not have the power to impose financial penalties on banks, although it has requested that ability. The CMA has argued that enhanced powers would ensure that banks and other businesses would comply with remedies more efficiently, and ensure that the CMA can handle breaches in a quicker manner.

Monzo’s Response

Monzo had already contacted the affected 13,000 customers before reporting the latest error to the CMA, and has made sure that all have received their financial transaction history.

Of the 13,000 customers, the majority of them were holders of personal accounts with the bank, although a small number of business account holders were also impacted.

Monzo has now set out the initial changes that it has made in response to the order from the CMA, including:

• A new auto-alert system that tells staff when the banking system has failed to issue transaction histories to customers automatically.
• The bank will now monitor cases to ensure that all departing customers are receiving their transaction history.

The bank has also said it is reviewing any other new procedures that may need to be put into place to ensure the Order is complied with. As per the Order, the bank will have to consult with an independent party that can ensure Monzo’s new procedures are sufficient.