A high profile prank by UK challenger bank Starling on rival Monzo has led to a £2000 payday for financial literacy charity MyBnk.
Sniffing a publicity coup on the day that Mondo announced its name change to Monzo, Starling registered half-a-dozen domain names bearing the new monicker and posted a holding page on each bearing a message from Starling Bank founder and CEO Anne Boden congratulating Monzo on its rebrand and inviting visitors to register with Starling.
Starling and Mondo have history, with Monzo chief Tom Blomfield having previously collaborated with Boden in the early days of Starling before falling out and leaving with a clutch of other senior managers to set up his own bank.
Starling had originally intended to auction the domain names for charity, but instead decided to donate £1000 to MyBnk and invite Mondo to match the donation in exchange for the pesky URLs.
Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling, says: “As much fun as we had during Mondo’s rename, we always intended to ensure the domain names ended up in the right hands. But we wanted to do something more, something good, to benefit next-gen customers too. Everyone needs to be able to manage their money, and MyBnk gives young people the skills to do this.”