
Mondo – A “Full Stack” Mobile-First Bank - tomblomfield
https://getmondo.co.uk/blog
======
teh_klev
The small-print:

"We aren’t a bank yet, but we are applying to the Prudential Regulation
Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for authorisation to
become one"

Edit: But a serious question though about your announcement. Do I really care
that you are a "Full Stack" whatever bank? I'm kind of wearied by the use of
"Full Stack This", "Full Stack That", this usage just makes me roll my eyes
even more.

If this is a way to hit up interest from techies like myself, at least explain
what's in your "Stack" and how you're using said technology to differentiate
yourself from say Lloyds, RBS, Barclays, First Direct etc.

~~~
jhuckestein
Mondo CTO here. Good question, thanks. It's "full stack" in the banking
industry sense, not the "full stack web developer" sense.

Most challenger banks don't pursue a banking license and have to work with an
existing licensed bank. This means they are constrained by their processes and
legacy technology (think cobol on mainframes). We don't have those problems
because we own the full "stack", from the user interface and the connectivity
to the payment schemes all the way down to holding the actual funds with the
central bank.

~~~
pjc50
Long ago in the late 90s I was an intern in a financial software company. I
was told a number of tales and legends, including that one of the major
British clearing banks still operated internally in pounds,shillings&pence
behind a conversion layer. I wonder how true that was.

~~~
jln
It's true, though no-one seems willing to name the offending bank in print.

Example:
[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5d1b0346-2af8-11dd-a7fc-000077b076...](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5d1b0346-2af8-11dd-a7fc-000077b07658.html)

------
m_t
As I see the CTO and CEO are here, I'll add my questions to the list.

1) As you'll be based in the UK, do you have any plans with account in €?

2) Will you offer competitive (read aggressively competitive) transfer rates
in €/£ with other European bank?

3) Will you have a coop state of mind (I'm thinking of The Co-Operative Bank
in the UK, or Le Crédit Coopératif in France)?

Thank you for your time.

~~~
tomblomfield
Good questions, but probably not a level of detail that we can talk about
right now. If you register for updates at getmondo.co.uk, we'll certainly keep
you posted.

~~~
m_t
I will, thanks for replying.

------
laugh_them_to
I see the cto is in this thread. In what ways are you different than a bank
like Simple?

~~~
jhuckestein
Good question. I recently spend a few hours re-reading Simple's old blog and
it was eerie how similar their vision, ideas and energy were!

The main difference is that Simple didn't have a banking license and didn't
write the core banking system themselves. They had to work with a legacy bank
(Bankcorp) and were constrained by their policies and technology. It sounds
like this was rather frustrating. We are building the entire bank, including
the core banking system and the regulatory approval. This is what we mean by
"full stack". A good example of something we can do better because of this is
the signup process. You will be able to sign up from your app and use your new
account within a few minutes.

From a product perspective the biggest difference is that they weren't mobile
first. But that would have been a bold move five years ago :)

------
charliefg
A query - would having a smart phone be necessary in order to use the service?

I understand that it says it lives on the smartphone but would the service
still be accessible via the browser?

~~~
tomblomfield
Most of the functionality will only be available via a smartphone, at least
initially.

~~~
mattschmulen
ok you have may attention ...

\- Will you provide a native SDK (Android, iOS) ?

\- Lets talk about international banking ... Specifically any current plans to
be licensed in Panama?

~~~
tomblomfield
Initially we'll offer a RESTful API, but we'll certainly consider native SDKs
if there's a need.

------
pjc50
a) What _is_ this stack, and what's its approach to security?

b) Do I get a proper API? That would be amazing. (It would also be a security
nightmare, I'm sure)

~~~
tomblomfield
a) We'll be releasing more details over the next few months, but it's
basically Go + a mix of relational & distributed databases. The real
difference is that we're not just reskinning an existing bank. Security is
obviously paramount - but it's much easier to build secure software on 21st
century tech than to try to secure systems from 1970s.

b) Yes.

------
ptype
Much needed, but a momentous task (regulatory wise). Good luck guys (I mean
it)!

