Over the last decade app-based banks like Monzo have grown rapidly, challenging the high street brands.
But does Monzo’s ethics stand up to scrutiny?
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Learn more about our company profiles →Our research highlights several ethical issues with Monzo, including limited policies on human rights and insufficient steps to address the climate impacts of its investments.
Below we outline some of these issues. To see the full detailed stories, and Monzo’s overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe.
Monzo has a mixed record on its approach to human rights. The company has an ethical investment policy, which states: “Our investments are only in safe, high quality government bonds and quasi-government bonds (such as development banks). We do not invest in fossil-fuel based energy companies, arms companies or tobacco companies."
Many banks are major financiers of arms companies supplying weapons for military use in Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere – making Monzo’s policy a positive step towards addressing its impacts on human rights.
However, its ethical lending policy overlooks other important issues. For example, it does not mention companies’ track record on workers’ rights, or exclude loans to companies linked to oppressive regimes.
Animals
The company does not appear to have any ethical lending policies related to animal rights – meaning that it could still be lending to companies involved in factory farming or other animal welfare issues.
Monzo scores fairly poorly for its lending policy overall.
Monzo has taken a positive step by prohibiting investments in fossil fuels. However, while the most ethical banks specifically aim to finance environmentally-friendly projects, such as renewable energies, Monzo does not take such an approach.
The company reported its total emissions in 2024 as 18,234 tCO2e, 99.7% of which were said to be scope 3 emissions from indirect activities. However, it did not specifically calculate its emissions from its financing activities, which is the largest source, and did not clearly explain how it planned to cut these emissions – for example from engaging with companies or strengthening its exclusion policies.
The company has a target to reach net zero emissions by 2030, but it did not provide any detail on what this covered, for example whether it included emissions from financing.
Monzo scores poorly in Ethical Consumer’s climate rating overall.
Monzo does not own any subsidiaries based in tax havens, and therefore scores well in Ethical Consumer’s tax conduct rating.
However, the highest earning director was paid £1,693,000 in 2024, which Ethical Consumer considered to be excessive.
The text above was written and most of the research was conducted in February 2025.
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