British challenger bank Monzo's profit soars, revenue tops $1.35 billion

By Yadarisa Shabong

(Reuters) -Monzo reported revenue above 1 billion pounds ($1.35 billion) for the first time and a sharp rise in annual profit on Monday as the British digital bank increased customer numbers.

The mobile app-based bank, launched in 2015, is one of several digital banks that have emerged in Britain to challenge the dominance of HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays and NatWest - the country's Big Four.

Monzo, which grew its customer numbers by 25% to 12.2 million last fiscal year, has been looking to expand into Europe through Ireland and strengthen its presence in the United States.

Monzo CEO TS Anil said the bank was planning to expand into more countries this year, without specifying where.

The company has considered listing on the stock market in either Britain or the United States but has not set a firm timeline or chosen a venue for an IPO, a person familiar with the company's plans told Reuters in March.

"It's too early for us to talk about an IPO," Anil told reporters on a media call on Monday.

"We believe we'd make a great public company one day and we're well on the trajectory to doing that when we choose to, but it's just not something we're focused on right now," he said.   

The fintech company posted a pretax profit of 60.5 million pounds for the year ended March 31, 2025, compared with 13.9 million pounds a year earlier. Fiscal year 2024 marked the company's first profitable year.

Revenue grew 48% to 1.2 billion pounds, with customer deposits increasing 48% to 16.6 billion pounds and loans and advances growing 35% to 1.6 billion pounds for the year, the lender said.

Last October, the British bank was valued at 4.5 billion pounds in an employee share sale to a group of investors, including Singapore's sovereign wealth fund.

Britain's financial regulator started an investigation into Monzo in 2021 over potential breaches of the country's anti-money laundering rules and financial crime controls.

Any resolution to the probe is likely to have a financial cost to Monzo, the bank said on Monday, without providing further details.

($1 = 0.7388 pounds)

(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Kate Mayberry)