Monzo is offering some of its staffers voluntary furloughs and CEO Tom Blomfield is forgoing his salary for a year as the digital bank looks to weather the Covid-19 storm, according to TechCrunch.
Monzo is taking advantage of the UK government's coronavirus job retention scheme, which lets employers claim 80% of furloughed employees' usual monthly wage cost, up to £2500 a month.
The bank, which employees around 1500 people, is accepting up to 295 applications to furlough, most in customer support, according to TechCrunch.
Meanwhile, CEO Blomfield will not take a salary for the next 12 months, with the rest of the senior management team agreeing to a 25% reduction in their salaries.
Last week Blomfield addressed rumours circulating that Monzo was on the verge of collapse and not paying its staff, saying: “Monzo is not going bust. Source: I am the CEO.”
Another digital challenger bank, Starling, tells TechCrunch it is furloughing 41 people and will top up their salaries to ensure they get 100%.
Like Monzo, Starling is well capitalised and just weeks ago opened its third UK office, creating 400 data science, fraud and customer service jobs in Cardiff.