App-only bank Mondo is the latest UK challenger bank to gain a banking licence from the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulatory Authority.
In being granted a restricted banking licence, Mondo follows in the footsteps of other digital-first startups Atom Bank, Tandem and Starling. Of that trio, only Atom bank has officially launched, offering customers a savings account paying two percent interest in its first year.
Mondo, which has so far raised £9 million, is moving exclusively in to the current account market, promising users a menu of options from which to run their daily financial affairs.
Earlier this week, the startup announced that 30,000 users signed up to its mobile banking app in a public beta trial had so far spent £20 million using the product. The company claims to have a waiting list of 200,000 prospective users ahead of its planned launch later this year or in early 2017.
Tom Blomfield, who previously founded GoCardless, is now the youngest CEO of a bank in the UK, having turned 31 just one day after the licence was granted.
“This is how the banking market changes, not with 800 page reviews from public bodies like the CMA, but with technology bringing new ideas to the table," he says. "We’re creating something that will completely revolutionise the way people think about their money."
Rival startup Starling, which secured its licence last month, is currently advertising for staff in time for its launch in January next year. The bank - which bills itself first and foremost as a technology company - says it wants to grow its staffing number from 40 to 70 by the end of the year.