FCA Fines Monzo £21m for Compliance Failures

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined digital bank Monzo £21.1 million for systemic failures in anti-financial crime controls from October 2018 to August 2020. Monzo's rapid customer growth—from 600,000 to over 5.8 million—outpaced its compliance systems, allowing customers to register accounts with clearly false addresses such as Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street. Despite an FCA ban in August 2020, Monzo continued onboarding over 34,000 high-risk customers through June 2022. The FCA reduced the original £30.1 million fine after Monzo agreed to settle and address the issues. Monzo has since launched a financial crime change programme and asserts that the identified failures have been resolved. The bank's CEO stated the issues relate to historic practices that have now been rectified.