Monzo CEO and Board Reportedly at Odds on IPO Location

While Monzo wants to go public, its leadership reportedly can’t agree on where to list.

That’s according to a report Tuesday (Jan. 21) by the Financial Times (FT), citing sources who say that while CEO TS Anil is backing an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S., the neobank’s board wants to list in Monzo’s home city of London.

Sources say the FinTech, valued at $5 billion last year, is in preliminary talks with bankers as it works to become “IPO ready” before the end of the year.

The company also hasn’t settled on a timeframe for an IPO and wants to be ready for the right market conditions, the sources said. One source said the IPO would be more likely to come in 2026, though Monzo is intent on having its governance and paperwork ready this year.

PYMNTS has contacted Monzo for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

The FT report notes that the debate about where to list could potentially be bad news for the London Stock Exchange. Companies going public in the U.K. raised the lowest amount on record last year, the report said — citing data from Dealogic —amid worries about the British market’s liquidity and valuations.

FinTech companies could turn things around, the report adds. Aside from Monzo, neobanks such as Starling and Revolut are expected to go public in the coming years. However, the latter company — the most valuable in Europe — has not yet settled on a listing market, and its CEO last year expressed a preference for the U.S.

PYMNTS wrote last month about the opportunities facing companies like Monzo following a wave of funding rounds last year.

“Investors are betting on these challengers to take share away from the incumbents that have long held sway over financial services,” that report said.

“Without the brick-and-mortar locations that are the hallmarks of those marquee players, the competition boils down to rates offered on checking and savings accounts. Monzo’s interest APY on savings accounts is several times that of the national average, for example.”

Still, there are signs that these companies are still fine-tuning at least some aspects of their business models amid heady growth, PYMNTS added, with concerns about fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) issues drawing more regulatory scrutiny, especially in the U.K.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has found that 25% of consumers cited data security as one of the chief reasons they have not moved to digital-only banking services.