Tom Blomfield has swapped his CEO title for a president role at Monzo as the challenger bank is dealing with COVID-19 fallout.
Monzo’s US CEO TS Anil will now also have the tile of UK CEO, according to TechCrunch. The report also stated that Monzo could announce more country-specific CEOs in the future.
Blomfield told TechCrunch that he had been considering the move for about a year and a half, adding that it would enable him to focus on the long-term vision of the challenger bank and to do the work he enjoyed more.
“I went through all the stuff I love about my job, and it was all the stuff I did in the first two or three years,” Blomfield told TechCrunch. “And I went through all the stuff that drains me, and it’s all the stuff I’ve done in the last two years, honestly. Things I think TS is awesome at.”
The news comes at a particularly eventful time for the UK FinTech scaleup. The year started out on an optimistic note with Monzo announcing that it would look to hire 500 new employees and take another crack at its failed premium account offering.
Another positive step showing some optimism for the future was that the digital bank applied for a banking licence with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
However, just like everything else these days, these efforts should be seen in the light of the coronavirus.
Monzo, like many other European challenger banks, was quick to send their colleagues to work from home. This didn’t prevent rumours to spread at the end of March that Monzo and its UK rival Revolut were about to go bust. Both neobanks were quick to denounce those claims.
Nevertheless, Monzo has since had to close its Las Vegas office and let go the 165 staff members who worked there. In the UK, it has reportedly furloughed 295 staff members.
In a sign of solidarity with affected workers, Blomfield said at the end of March that he would not take out any salary for the next 12 months. At the same time, the digital bank announced that the board and other employees had decided to take a 25% pay cut.
In order to protect itself from the fallout of the virus, Monzo announced the other week that it was closing a new investment round worth between £70m and £80m. However, the coronavirus has, like FinTech Global has reported in the past, meant that investors can set terms that benefit them and not necessarily the FinTech companies.
TechCrunch reported that the new round had seen Monzo having to accept a 40% reduction, which saw the company’s value drop from £2bn to £1.25bn.
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