Hacker News Reader

(I work on Issuing.)

Not really. We make it easy for institutions like Monzo to issue and manage cards, but I imagine that's just a fraction of what they've needed to build to run a regulated bank, service their customers, etc etc.

Stripe invested in Monzo's last round I think!

It's not really the same. Monzo's a bank capitalising somewhat on UK Open Banking legislation[1] and the fact that traditional banks are very slow to move with the times. It's not a SaaS product, they're likely one of if not the first movers in the market. There are competitors (Monese, Tide for business, N26 is coming at some point soon). UK fintech is pretty vibrant.

You would hope that Monzo is easy to replicate well because that means you have more modern banks to choose from.

[1] https://www.openbanking.org.uk

Monzo's first competitor is Revolut.

I would say Starling is more comparable. Both are licensed banks with FSCS protection.