One of the biggest British banks which tried to rival Monzo and Revolut has sunk

In the last couple of years, we’ve seen a substantial shift in the way banking systems offer their services. We saw some new digital banking services that shook up the scene and introduced new features. One such service was the standalone digital bank Bó by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). However, RBS has decided to pull the plug on the digital bank, and here’s why this happened. 

RBS pulls the plug on its digital bank Bó

RBS recently released a report wherein it explained that its digital bank Bó is being shut down. More precisely, Bó will be merged with RBS’ digital bank for SMEs, Mettle.  “As a result, we will be winding down Bó as a customer-facing brand. The technology used in Bó will be integrated as we develop Mettle further,” RBS CEO Alison Rose said in a media call. 

Bó was launched back in November 2019 with the aim of rivalling Monzo, Revolut, and Starling. It managed to garner around 11,000 customers, who have been sent an email informing that the bank is closing down. Their customers will still have access to the account, which will be functional and they will be informed 60 days before it is closed.

Why was Bó shut down?

While there are many reasons being attributed to the closure of Bo, RBS a prominent one is a shift in focus. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, RBS says it needed to refocus its efforts to tackle the difficult market. RBS says it is currently focussing its efforts on its retail bank after being hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak in the first quarter. The British state bank-backed RBS faced halved profits as it set aside € 913 million to cover a forecasted surge in bad loans due to COVID-19.

In addition to the pandemic, one can’t overlook the fact that Bo’s CEO Mark Bailie and CPO Ollie Purdu recently left the company. Furthermore, right after launch, the company’s services were struck with issues such as a compliance glitch that led to the replacement of thousands of customer cards. There were also some issues with the app as well due to which it failed to receive good stellar feedback from customers on app stores.

Main image credits: Bó

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