The Bank That Pays You to Stay

Hey Digital Banking Fanatic!

Imagine a phone plan that gets cheaper the longer you keep it. That's what Monzo is launching.

The digital bank, which recently announced its entry into Spain, is launching a phone plan in the UK that gets cheaper the longer a customer stays: no exit fees, no mid-contract surprises, and a 5% annual discount that compounds up to 30% over time. 

Monzo’s entry to the market is set to intensify competition among phone providers, which are already being challenged by newer players such as Revolut and Klarna.

The neobank, which now serves over 15 million customers, has been on a tear, and its latest numbers tell a fascinating story. 

I broke it all down for you in this article, go and read it!

Scroll down to read the rest of today's news. See you on Monday!

Cheers,

Marcel

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🎤 FinTechs sell products. Banks absorb responsibility by DashDevs. In episode 148 of  FinTech Garden, Ronel David, an independent non-executive board member at PayInc, joined Igor Tomych to discuss the evolving relationship between FinTechs and banks, arguing that while FinTechs focus on product innovation, banks continue to carry the regulatory and operational responsibility behind financial services. Watch the full podcast here

NEWS

🇲🇽 Uber and Klar launch Uber Card in Mexico with Mastercard. The co-branded credit card aims to convert Uber’s 25 million active annual users in Mexico into financial services customers by offering cashback rewards, interest-free installments, and credit lines of up to MX$250,000 (US$14,453).

🇬🇧 Digital bank Monzo launches phone plan that gets cheaper every year. Customers of the bank can join a waiting list for the mobile service that is built on the Virgin O2 network and will be rolled out in the summer. The bank said its phone plan challenges the traditional mobile model by rewarding, rather than penalising, long-term loyalty.

🇪🇸 Revolut is targeting 10 million customers in Spain by next year, aiming to add four million new users in two years as it accelerates growth in one of its fastest-growing European markets. The FinTech already serves six million customers in Spain and has become the country’s fourth-largest financial institution by customer base.

🇮🇹 Revolut customers in Italy banking hits 5 million as 2025 transactions jump. In Italy, Revolut is increasingly used for everyday banking activities: salary deposits, savings, tax payments, household money management, and business finance.

🇦🇷 Argentine neobank Brubank launches a dollar-backed credit card targeting people with no credit history. The goal behind this new Brubank card is simple: to help people who until now did not qualify for a traditional line of credit. The new card is designed to expand access to financing in a simple, transparent, and 100% digital way, regardless of whether the user has a credit history or not.

🇨🇳 Huawei launched an upgraded suite of digital finance solutions at its Intelligent Finance Summit (HiFS) in Shanghai, focused on helping banks transition toward agentic banking powered by AI. The company introduced a hybrid AI architecture designed to support secure, compliant deployment of intelligent financial services and more personalized, language-driven banking experiences.

🇸🇽  Sint Maarten is considering new financial legislation that could open the door for global payment platforms such as PayPal and Revolut to operate locally. Finance Minister Marinka Gumbs said the proposed framework would establish the licensing and regulatory structure international FinTech firms require before entering the market.

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