Three of the UK’s leading neobanks are stepping up to protect their staff and their customers from the spread of the coronavirus.
For starters, Revolut, Monzo and Starling Bank are allowing their staff to self-isolate.
Revolut and Monzo have taken precautions such as allowing employees to work from home, City A.M. reported.
Both Revolut and Starling Bank have introduced a split-working system where they alternate letting half of their workforce work from home and then switch over.
A Revolut spokesperson said these systems are being reviewed on a daily basis.
Starling Bank has also banned travelling to its three offices in London, Cardiff and Southampton. Revolut has banned all business travel across the globe and has ordered any employee going abroad on vacation to self-isolate for two weeks upon their return back home.
“We’re built on technology that allows us to offer a scalable and resilient service that’s not tied to a particular location and that can continue to be available to customers 24/7,” Anne Boden, CEO and founder of Starling Bank, told City A.M.. “This means we are ideally suited to respond well to the current situation – we have been built for this.”
Similar initiatives have been launched by other challenger banks across Europe. For instance a spokesperson of the German digital bank N26 told FinTech Global that it has taken steps to restrict work travel, empower remote working and diversify the locations of key business functions.
“Our team is continuing to monitor the situation to respond as circumstances evolve, so that we can ensure the safety of our employees and also keep our customer service teams available seven days a week, as per usual,” the spokesperson added.
OakNorth, the British small business-focused challenger bank, has taken similar precautions. “We have a task force assembled that is consistently monitoring the global situation and we are in contact with our clients and other stakeholders on a daily basis,” Valentina Kristensen, director of growth and communications at OakNorth, told FinTech Global.
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