Monzo’s marketing boss Tristan Thomas to depart

Monzo’s vice-president of marketing Tristan Thomas is to leave the challenger bank at the end of the year as it faces concerns about its future amid mounting losses.

Thomas joined Monzo in 2015 as one of its earliest recruits when it had fewer than 20 employees and was called Mondo. He began as community manager before taking up a product manager role.

He was made Monzo’s head of marketing in 2017 before being promoted to vice-president of marketing late last year, running a team of 20 responsible for PR and comms, as well as product, brand and content marketing.

Under his leadership, Monzo has rapidly expanded its marketing capabilities and upped its investment in advertising. The bank launched its first major marketing campaign last year, with Thomas telling Marketing Week at the time it had led to spikes in both brand awareness and app downloads.

“Clearly we went into this looking to see a significant uplift in downloads and people creating Monzo accounts. It was pretty insane actually. We saw in June by far our biggest month of sign-ups… and we are still seeing those impacts today,” he said at the time.

Thomas does not have a job lined up, but instead plans to take a break before working on something new. During lockdown he has launched a couple of his own ventures including an online wine subscription service.

Thomas says: “My last five years at Monzo has been incredible – I’ve learnt more than I ever thought possible and am incredibly proud of the work we’ve done. I’m excited to take a bit of a break at the end of this year and then work on something new.”

Monzo plans to replace the role, with Thomas staying on for the next few months to help recruit his replacement.

A Monzo spokesperson says: “Tristan has played a huge role in making Monzo what it is today. He’s helped us build Monzo into a bank that listens to our community, earning customers’ trust through transparency, and he’s built a world-class marketing team that’s helped us welcome over 4 million customers to Monzo. We can’t overstate the impact of his work.

“We’re extremely grateful for everything he’s done in his time here. We’re of course sad to see Tristan go, but wish him all the very best for the future.”

Thomas’s departure comes as Monzo faces an uncertain future amid mounting losses. The bank’s losses more than doubled to £113.8m last year, despite revenues tripling as it spent on hiring, marketing and US expansion.

It has since warned that it expects the pandemic to lead to a surge in credit losses, causing “significant doubt” about its ability to continue operating. It has since been cutting costs, including axing around 100 jobs in the UK.