U.K challenger bank Monzo has recently recruited Carol Nelson as its U.S. CEO in a solid bid to expand its operations to the U.S. Despite having first shared its intentions to set its targets on the U.S. in early 2019, this is the largest confirmation of its movements toward the goal since.
With 10 years as the CEO of Cascade Bank and a considerable stint as a longtime senior vice president at the Bank of America, Nelson’s appointment shows that Monzo is evidently not holding back with its U.S. expansion. Having also been a strategic advisor for Monzo U.S. across the last year, Nelson will undoubtedly hit the ground running in the top seat. Helming the role as CEO of its U.S. operations previously was TS Anil who will now head up the U.K. as Monzo’s U.K. CEO. Meanwhile, Tom Blomfield after six years of founding and running the company, announced earlier this year that he is leaving the company altogether.
With Nelson joining the company’s leadership, Monzo U.S. will be steered from its soft launch phase to a full-fledged operation challenging U.S. banks and undoubtedly growing upon its existing 5 million customers. Until her arrival, the team of ten in the U.S. had been treading somewhat cautiously while working through the banking charter application. Having executed a limited number of beta customers, the team had refined experiments to discover and develop the perfect product fit for this new larger market.
Nelson’s employment is the cherry on top of an exciting period for Monzo, as the company is also poised to land a $69 million investment in a Series G round. Profitability will be a key motivation for the newly appointed U.S. CEO after it was reported the digital bank lost over 100 million GBP last year. On the bright side, Nelson joins the company with just over 20,000 signups on the U.S. waitlist eager for the company to fully launch, which indicates a warm response to Monzo entering the U.S. When conditions of the pandemic permit, Monzo will set up shop in San Francisco.
